THE  STORY 

PANAMA 


AUSE  &  CARR 


BANCROFT 

LIBRARY 
•> 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


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THE  STORY  OF  PANAMA 

THE  NEW  ROUTE  TO  INDIA 


BY 

FRANK  A.   GAUSE 

SUPERINTENDENT  CANAL  ZONE   PUBLIC   SCHOOLS 
AND 

CHARLES  CARL  CARR 

PRINCIPAL    CANAL   ZONE    PUBLIC    HIOH    SCHOOL 


SILVER,  BURDETT  AND   COMPANY 

BOSTON        NEW  YORK        CHICAGO 


OOPTBIGHT,  1912, 

BT  8ILVEE,  BURDETT  AND  COMPANY 


BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 


PREFACE 

THE  attention  of  the  world  is  now  turned  upon 
Panama.  For  Panama  that  is  no  new  experience. 
American  history  had  its  beginnings  in  this  part  of 
the  world.  From  the  day  when  Columbus  found 
his  path  to  the  Indies  obstructed  by  the  low-lying 
Isthmus,  a  shorter  route  to  India  has  been  the  dream 
of  men  and  of  nations. 

So  the  story  of  Panama  involves  an  account  of 
great  exploits  and  of  great  achievements.  There 
were  the  daring  explorers  and  the  hardy  buccaneers ; 
then  the  stirring  days  of  canal  making,  with  Panama 
as  the  scene  of  the  greatest  engineering  feat  of 
modern  times;  and  already  there  are  evidences  of 
coming  expansion  in  new  directions,  following  the 
operation  of  the  canal. 

Yet  this  great  canal  only  represents  improved 
facilities  for  handling  a  long-established  transisth- 
mian  traffic.  There  were  trade  routes  and  trade 
centers  on  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  half  a  century 
before  the  foundations  of  St.  Augustine  were  laid, 
and  a  century  before  the  first  permanent  English 
colony  in  North  America  was  established  at  James- 
town. If  present  plans  materialize,  the  Isthmian 


VI  PREFACE 

canal  will  be  dedicated  to  the  world's  commerce  on 
the  four  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  establishment 
of  the  old  Royal  Road,  the  first  commercial  high- 
way across  the  two  Americas. 

The  story  of  the  canal  as  an  engineering  project 
has  already  been  written  in  engineering  terms,  for 
engineers.  Its  picturesque  features  have  also  been 
displayed  in  many  forms  by  writers  whose  acquaint- 
ance with  the  work  and  with  the  country  was  neces- 
sarily limited  to  the  observations  of  a  few  days. 
But  there  still  seems  to  be  place  for  an  account  of  the 
principal  features  of  the  construction  as  witnessed 
during  several  years'  residence  in  the  Canal  Zone. 
Because  of  the  authors'  long  acquaintance  with  the 
country  and  association  with  the  actual  work  THE 
STORY  OF  PANAMA  tells  at  first  hand  of  life  and 
conditions  in  Panama ;  and  it  is  hoped  that  it  will 
do  something  toward  correcting  misapprehensions 
and  arousing  new  interest. 

The  authors  owe  much  to  the  Canal  Zone  officials 
and  to  the  officials  of  the  Republic  of  Panama,  who 
have  accorded  them  every  courtesy  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  this  book  and  have  given  them  access  to 
many  unusual  illustrations. 

ANCON,  CANAL  ZONE, 
October  31,  1912. 


CONTENTS 


PART  ONE:  CANAL  MAKING 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  PROJECT 1 

II.    THE  FRENCH  ATTEMPT        .        .        .        .        .        .  7 

III.  PANAMA  BECOMES  A  REPUBLIC 17 

IV.  ON  THE  WORKS 30 

V.    THE  Bio  CUT 78 

VI.    ORGANIZATION 97 

VII.    QUARTERMASTER'S  DEPARTMENT        ....  101 

VIII.    SANITATION Ill 

IX.    SUBSISTENCE  DEPARTMENT 124 

X.    DEPARTMENT  OF  CIVIL  ADMINISTRATION  .        .        .  132 

XI.    OTHER  DEPARTMENTS 150 

PART  TWO:   THE  CANAL  COUNTRY 

I.    COLUMBUS 159 

II.    BALBOA 168 

III.  THE  ROYAL  ROAD 179 

IV.  SIR  FRANCIS  DRAKE 196 

V.    MORGAN'S  ISTHMIAN  RAIDS 205 

VI.    PANAMA  AND  THE  PIRATES 218 

VII.    THE  LAND  OF  DREAMS 227 

VIII.    THE  PANAMA  OF  TO-DAY 243 

IX.    THE  PANAMA  RAILROAD 258 

X.    DIPLOMACY  OF  Two  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY  YEARS  268 

vii 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 
PART   ONE 

MM 

MAP  OF  THE  REPUBLIC  OF  PANAMA,  (In  color) 

MAP  OF  THE  CANAL  ZONE,  (In  color) 

THE  COLUMBUS  MONUMENT  AT  CRISTOBAL         .        .        .  xvi 

LANDS  THAT  COLUMBUS  DISCOVERED 5 

THE  FOUR  MOST  FAVORABLE  ROUTES         ....  5 

TOSCANELLI'S   MAP   OF   THE   WORLD 5 

INTERSECTION  OF  AMERICAN  AND  FRENCH  CANALS    .        .  6 

IDLE  SINCE  THE  FRENCH  DAYJ 11 

CULEBRA  CUT  AS  THE  FRENCH  LEFT  IT   .     .     .     .11 

AN  OLD  ANCHOR  FOUND  NEAR  CRUCES       ....  15 

CULEBRA  CUT  EXCAVATIONS 16 

PESTILENTIAL  PANAMA  OF  FRENCH  DAYS  ....  23 

TRANSFORMED  PANAMA  OF  AMERICAN  DAYS      ...  24 

JUST  OFF  CRISTOBAL 31 

ROOSEVELT  AVENUE,  CRISTOBAL 35 

CAMP  BIERD,  THE  WEST  INDIAN  SECTION  OF  CRISTOBAL  39 

DIAGRAM  OF  LADDER  DREDGE 41 

A  PAIR  OF  THE  BIG  GATES,  GATUN  LOCKS        ...  45 

THE  GREAT  WATER  PIPE  IN  THE  "  FILL"         ...  49 

LOADING  BUCKETS  WITH  CEMENT,  AT  GATUN     ...  49 

GATUN  DAM,  SPILLWAY  AND  LOCKS 51 

DIAGRAM  OF  SPILLWAY 52 

"BEFORE" .        .  53 

ix 


X  LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGB 

"AFTER" 54 

DIAGRAM  OF  CROSS-SECTION  OF  LOCKS         ....  58 

MONOLITHS  IN  MIDDLE  WALL,  UPPER  GATUN    ...  59 

GATUN  UPPER  LOCKS,  SHOWING  GATE  SILLS       ...  59 

WEST  CHAMBER,  GATUN  UPPER  LOCKS       ....  63 

FOREBAY  AND   LlFT   SlLL,    GATUN   LOCKS       ....  63 

A  TYPICAL  LABOR  TRAIN     .        .        ..       .        .        .        .67 

TRACK  SHIFTING  MACHINE 73 

MOSQUITOES 75 

PAY  CAR  AT  CULEBRA 79 

CULEBRA  SLIDE,  WEST  BANK,  LOOKING  SOUTH  ...  80 

CULEBRA  CUT,  CROSS  SECTION 81 

STEAM  SHOVEL  LOADING  ROCK,  CULEBRA  CUT    ...  83 

BOTTOM  OF  CANAL  RAISED  THROUGH  PRESSURE         .        .  84 

CULEBRA  CUT  FROM  CONTRACTOR'S  HILL    ....  84 

A  SEAGOING  SUCTION  DREDGE 87 

PEDRO  MIGUEL  LOCKS,  LOOKING  SOUTH       ....  88 

PEDRO  MIGUEL  LOCKS,  LOOKING  NORTH      ....  88 

ON  THE  WAY  FROM  BALBOA  TO  ANCON      ....  91 

HOTEL  TIVOLI 92 

THE  ISTHMIAN  CANAL  COMMISSION 96 

ORGANIZATION  CHART 99 

SLEEPING  QUARTERS  FOR  NEGROES 105 

LABOR  QUARTERS 105 

A  BEDROOM  IN  FAMILY  QUARTERS 106 

Y.  M.  C.  A.  CLUBHOUSE 106 

MALARIA  CHART 113 

APPLYING  LARVACIDE  WITH  KNAPSACK  SPRAY  .        .        .  119 

BURNING  GRASS  FROM  SIDES  OF  A  DITCH  ....  119 

ENTRANCE  TO  ANCON  HOSPITAL  GROUNDS  ....  120 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS  XI 

PACK 

I.  C.  C.  SANITARIUM  AT  TABOGA 120 

MEAL  TIME  AT  AN  I.  C.  C.  KITCHEN 129 

SQUAD  OF  CANAL  ZONE  MOUNTED  POLICE.        .        .        .139 

A  QUARTERMASTER'S  CORRAL 139 

SCHOOL  GARDEN  AT  EMPIRE 147 

PRIMARY  GRADES  AT  PLAY,  GATUN  WHITE  SCHOOL          .  148 

NATIVE  SCHOOL,  SAN  MIGUEL 148 

PART   TWO 

CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS        .......  161 

BALBOA  DISCOVERING  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN         .        .        .  173 

"MORGAN'S  BRIDGE,"  ENTRANCE  TO  OLD  PANAMA    .        .  181 

A  GLIMPSE  OF  THE  ROYAL  ROAD 181 

HISTORIC  VILLAGES  AS  THEY  ARE  TO-DAY         .        .        .185 

PORTO  BELLO,  SHOWING  CANAL  ZONE  VILLAGE  .        .        .  193 

OLD  PORTO  BELLO  AS  IT  is  TO-DAY 194 

THE  PANAMA  TREE 197 

FORT  LORENZO  OF  TO-DAY 213 

RUINS  OF  A  SENTRY  Box 231 

TOWER  OF  ST.  ANASTASIUS 223 

SAN  BLAS  INDIANS  AT  ARMILLA 229 

NATIVES  POUNDING  RICE 237 

WASH  DAY  AT  TABOGA 238 

SAN  BLAS  INDIAN  WOMAN 241 

CHIRIQUI  VOLCANO  AND  BOQUETE  VALLEY         .        .        .  247 

NATIVE  HOTEL,  DAVID 247 

PATIO  SCENE  NEAR  DAVID 248 

PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION  DAY,  DAVID 248 

PEARL  ISLANDS,  PANAMA  BAY 253 

PEARL  DIVERS  253 


Xll  LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGK 

THE  PANAMA  LOTTERY 253 

SKATING  ON  SEA  WALL 253 

AT  FORT  LORENZO          . 254 

IN  THE  JUNGLE 265 

GATHERING  COCONUTS  .        .        .        .        .        .        .266 

A  PINEAPPLE  PLANTATION 266 

CITY  OF  PANAMA,  FROM  ANCON  HILL         ....  271 

THE  GOVERNMENT  PALACE,  PANAMA 272 

CATHEDRAL  PLAZA,  PANAMA 277 

INSTALLING  THE  WATER  SYSTEM,  PANAMA         .        .        .  277 


PAET   ONE 
CANAL  MAKING 


THE   COLUMBUS   MONUMENT   AT   CRISTOBAL 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  PROJECT 

WHEN  Columbus,  searching  for  a  new  route  to 
the  Orient,  chanced  to  land  in  the  West  Indies,  the 
natives  there  told  him  strange  stories  about  a  strait 
through  which  one  might  travel  westward  into 
waters  that  led  directly  to  the  land  for  which  he 
was  seeking.  His  belief  in  these  stories  increased  as 
his  later  voyages  took  him  closer  and  closer  to  the 
western  continent  and  finally  to  the  mainland  itself. 

In  those  days  maps  were  based  on  beliefs  as  well 
as  on  facts.  The  faith  Columbus  had  in  this  secret 
strait  which  he  had  never  seen  is  shown  in  the  map 
that  was  inspired  by  him,  although  not  published 
until  two  years  after  his  death.  This  map  has  no 
Isthmus  of  Panama,  but  shows  in  its  place  a  strait 
permitting  direct  passage  from  Europe  to  India. 

Following  Columbus  came  Balboa  with  his  ex- 
ploration of  the  Isthmus  and  his  discovery  of  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  Curiously  enough,  the  legend  of  a 
strait  still  persisted.  The  Indians  told  Balboa  that 
across  the  newly  discovered  isthmus  there  was  an 
all-water  connection  between  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
and  the  "  South  Sea."  Balboa  believed  this  story 

l 


2  THE    STORY   OF   PANAMA 

just  as  Columbus  had  believed  the  legend  told  him 
by  other  Indian  tribes. 

Geographers  and  explorers  accepted  the  existence 
of  this  unseen  strait,  and  the  discovery  of  the  elusive 
and  mysterious  stream  became  the  chief  incentive 
to  most  of  the  exploration  up  and  down  the  coast. 
The  explorers  never  found  the  strait,  but  out  of 
their  failure  grew  the  idea  of  digging  a  waterway  to 
connect  the  two  oceans. 

And  so  the  Panama  Canal  is  not  a  project  of  the 
twentieth  century;  nor  yet  of  the  nineteenth. 
The  conception  dates  back  to  1523.  The  project 
was  first  proposed  to  Charles  V  of  Spain  fully  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  before  the  birth  of  the 
nation  destined  to  construct  the  canal. 

It  was  Hernando  Cortez,  the  Spanish  conqueror 
of  Mexico,  who  first  proposed  making  the  great 
waterway.  Cortez  was  sent  by  his  monarch,  Charles 
V,  to  find  the  strait  which  was  said  to  connect  the 
Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  oceans.  He  searched  dili- 
gently along  the  Spanish  Main,  with  an  expenditure 
of  much  time,  energy  and  money. 

Failing  to  find  this  mythical  stream,  the  stern  old 
conquistador  determined  upon  the  brilliant  expedient 
of  making  a  strait.  His  plans  were  cut  short  by 
the  treachery  of  his  followers,  but  he  deserves  men- 
tion as  the  pioneer  in  a  movement  which  men  were 
destined  to  exploit  for  four  centuries.  He  en- 


THE    BIRTH   OF   THE    PROJECT  3 

couraged  his  cousin,  Alvaro  de  Saavedra  Ceron,  to 
follow  up  his  work;  and  Saavedra  finally  drew 
plans -for  four  transisthmian  water  routes,  intending 
to  submit  these  plans  to  the  king  of  Spain. 

The  routes  which  Saavedra  had  in  mind  were  the 
four  that  have  received  most  attention  in  later 
years  —  Darien,  Nicaragua,  Tehuantepec  and  Pan- 
ama; but  he  did  not  live  long  enough  to  develop 
any  one  of  these  plans.  Then  Charles  V  encouraged 
other  explorers  to  continue  the  search  for  a  natural 
water  route.  It  was  not  until  the  abdication  of 
Charles  V  and  the  accession  of  Philip  II  that  the 
Spanish  ceased  the  attempt  either  to  find  an  all- 
water  passage  or  to  pierce  the  Isthmus. 

Philip  II  introduced  a  reactionary  policy  which 
put  an  end  to  Spanish  enterprise  along  that  line 
for  almost  a  hundred  years.  After  an  unfavorable 
report  from  Antonelli,  who  had  been  sent  out  by 
the  king  to  survey  the  Nicaraguan  route,  Philip 
laid  the  matter  before  his  Dominican  friars,  who  in 
reply  quoted  from  the  Bible,  "What  God  hath 
joined  together,  let  no  man  put  asunder."  Decid- 
ing that  this  passage  referred  directly  to  Panama, 
the  Spanish  king  forbade  any  further  attempts  at 
canal  making  as  sacrilegious. 

From  the  tune  that  Cortez  conceived  the  idea  of 
making  a  strait  to  the  first  attempt  at  its  actual 
accomplishment,  three  and  a  half  centuries  later,  the 


4  THE   STORY  OF   PANAMA 

Isthmus  of  Panama  was  the  center  of  stirring  events. 
The  conquest  of  Peru,  the  pirate  raids  of  Drake  and 
of  Morgan,  the  diplomatic  skirmishes  of  England 
and  Spain,  all  contributed  to  keep  Panama  hi  the 
eye  of  the  world. 

The  United  States  had  been  slow  to  recognize  the 
commercial  necessity  for  a  transisthmian  canal,  but 
the  subject  was  frequently  considered  in  Congress 
during  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
One  commissioner  after  another  was  sent  to  investi- 
gate possible  routes  and  to  approach  the  states  of 
Central  America  whose  cooperation  was  essential  to 
any  such  project.  Various  plans  were  made,  and  at 
several  different  times  a  canal  under  American  con- 
trol seemed  to  be  assured ;  but  always  some  insuper- 
able difficulty  was  encountered. 

While  canal  building  was  still  under  discussion, 
three  enterprising  Americans  built  the  Panama  rail- 
road, which  for  a  time  served  to  relieve  the  impera- 
tive demand  for  transcontinental  transportation. 
During  the  late  fifties  and  early  sixties  the  United 
States  was  too  deeply  engrossed  with  the  vital 
issues  of  the  Civil  War  to  consider  canal  construc- 
tion; and  before  the  country  was  prepared  to  take 
the  matter  up  in  all  earnestness  the  French  were 
ready  to  engineer  and  to  finance  a  canal.  This  was 
not,  however,  their  first  Isthmian  Canal  project,  for 
they  had  previously  made  several  attempts. 


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FOril   MOST  FAVOHABLE  CAXAL  ROUTES 


LANDS  WHICH  COLUMBUS  DISCOVERED 


(5) 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  FRENCH  ATTEMPT 

IN  March,  1876,  at  the  suggestion  of  Count  Fer- 
dinand de  Lesseps,  the  Society  of  Commercial 
Geography  at  Paris  organized  a  committee  to  go 
into  the  subject  of  the  projected  Isthmian  Canal. 
De  Lesseps,  whose  success  in  engineering  the  opera- 
tions at  Suez  commended  him  to  the  Society,  was 
chosen  to  preside  at  the  deliberations  of  this  body. 

The  Committee  held  its  first  meeting  at  Paris  in 
May,  1879.  It  at  once  took  upon  itself  an  inter- 
national character,  as  the  name  under  which  it 
worked  implied — "The  International  Scientific  Con- 
gress." Representatives  from  nearly  all  the  civilized 
nations  of  the  world  were  present.  The  discussion 
lasted  for  several  months,  but  the  conclusions  of 
the  Committee  may  be  summed  up  in  these  words : 
"The  Congress  thinks  that  the  construction  of  an 
interoceanic  waterway  on  a  constant  level  is  pos- 
sible ;  that  in  the  interests  of  commerce  and  naviga- 
tion a  sea  level  canal  is  desirable;  that  the  most 
practicable  route  lies  between  the  Gulf  of  Limon 
and  the  Bay  of  Panama."  The  Committee  believed 
the  cost  would  approximate  $240,000,000. 

7 


8  THE   STORY  OF   PANAMA 

Here,  then,  were  the  three  paramount  questions: 
(1)  What  kind  of  canal  was  to  be  built  ?  (2)  What 
was  to  be  its  location?  (3)  What  would  it  cost? 
The  wisdom  of  the  conclusions  of  the  Committee 
has  been  confirmed  on  only  one  point,  that  of  loca- 
tion. A  sea  level  canal  is  now  believed  to  be  out 
of  the  question,  even  with  present-day  machinery 
and  methods.  It  is  estimated  that  the  lock  canal 
will  cost  $375,000,000,  and  it  is  certain  that  a  sea 
level  canal  would  cost  several  times  that  amount, 
if  indeed  it  could  be  built  at  all. 

As  the  plans  of  De  Lesseps  had  been  incorporated 
in  the  Committee's  report  (against  the  vote  of  a 
majority  of  the  engineers  on  the  Committee)  and  as 
the  Count  had  demonstrated  his  ability  to  build 
canals,  he  was  given  the  direction  of  the  proj- 
ect. 

On  the  17th  of  August,  1879,  a  company  was 
organized  under  the  significant  title,  Compagnie  Uni- 
verselle  du  Canal  Interoceanique  (The  Universal  Inter- 
oceanic  Canal  Company).  M.  de  Lesseps'  confidence 
in  the  success  of  the  project  is  indicated  in  an  address 
he  made  at  the  time.  He  said,  "If  a  general  who 
has  won  his,  first  battle  is  asked  whether  he  desires 
the  chance  to  win  another,  he  cannot  refuse."  While 
De  Lesseps  appears  to  have  had  no  doubt  about  the 
successful  issue  of  the  undertaking,  the  project  was 
viewed  with  misgiving  by  more  deliberate  men,  many 


THE   FRENCH   ATTEMPT  9 

of  whom  looked  upon  it  at  that  time  as  altogether 
impracticable. 

But  the  romantic  nature  of  the  undertaking  ap- 
pealed to  the  French  people,  and  the  eighty  million 
dollars'  worth  of  stock  offered  for  sale  was  taken 
within  a  short  time.  The  enthusiastic  De  Lesseps, 
encouraged  by  the  readiness  with  which  this  stock 
was  purchased,  believed  that  all  was  over  except  a 
little  work  and  much  shouting.  However,  it  is  not 
strange  that  a  man  who  had  just  built  the  Suez 
Canal  —  a  man  endowed  with  the  optimistic  tem- 
perament of  the  best  blood  of  France  —  should  de- 
clare, "  Those  who  have  counted  only  on  a  lock  canal 
have  committed  a  serious  blunder ;  a  sea  level  canal 
is  not  only  the  most  desirable,  but  is  easily  possible. " 

Prior  to  the  organization  of  the  Interoceanic  Canal 
Company,  a  French  syndicate  had  secured  from 
Colombia  a  concession  for  the  construction  of  a 
canal.  This  concession  was  transferred  to  the  De 
Lesseps  company.  The  surveys  authorized  made 
it  necessary  that  the  canal  company  invade  the 
territory  that  had  previously  been  ceded  to  the 
Panama  Railroad  Company.  This,  and  the  fact 
that  the  control  of  the  railroad  facilities  would  be 
valuable  during  the  construction  of  the  canal, 
rendered  it  advisable  to  take  over  the  stock  of  the 
railroad  company,  which  was  purchased  at  a  high 
figure,  $18,000,000. 


10  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

The  actual  work  of  digging  the  canal  began  in 
May,  1882.  Tracy  Robinson  thus  describes  the 
occasion:  "The  company  was  assembled  to  witness 
the  formal  opening  of  the  great  work.  The  Bishop 
of  Panama  was  to  give  it  his  blessing.  A  tremendous 
charge  of  dynamite  was  to  be  exploded.  .  .  .  An 
eyewitness  has  described  the  scene  for  us :  '  The 
blessing  had  been  pronounced.  There  the  crowd 
stood,  breathless,  ears  stopped,  eyes  blinking,  half 
in  terror  lest  this  artificial  earthquake  might  involve 
general  destruction.  But  there  was  no  explosion ! 
It  wouldn't  go  ! "  This  is  a  beginning  typical  of 
the  long,  sad  attempt  of  the  French.  It  simply 
would  not  go. 

The  canal  was  to  be  of  the  sea  level  type,  thirty 
feet  deep  and  seventy-two  feet  minimum  width  at 
the  bottom.  The  continental  divide  was  to  be 
pierced  by  a  tunnel.  This  last  scheme,  however, 
was  soon  abandoned  and  the  present  open  cut  sub- 
stituted for  the  tunnel. 

De  Lesseps  pushed  the  work  vigorously,  but  very 
early  in  the  course  of  operations  there  began  to 
arise  those  serious  obstacles  foreseen  by  the  trained 
engineers,  who  had  voted  against  the  great  director 
almost  to  a  man.  The  floods  of  the  Chagres,  dis- 
ease, distrust  —  a  thousand  obstacles  unforeseen  by 
the  brave  Frenchman,  crowded  upon  him  to  dis- 
courage, thwart  and  finally  to  overwhelm  him. 


I.  IDLE  SINCE  THE  FRENCH  DAYS 
II.  CULEBRA  CUT  AS  THE  FRENCH  LEFT  IT 


(ID 


THE   FRENCH   ATTEMPT  13 

The  early  confidence  in  De  Lesseps'  ability  to 
accomplish  this  great  task  soon  began  to  wane. 
Subscriptions  for  stock  dwindled  to  such  an  extent 
that  by  the  middle  of  the  year  1887  it  became  evi- 
dent that  if  the  work  was  to  continue  there  must 
be  a  change  both  in  the  organization  of  the  company 
and  hi  the  original  plan  of  the  canal.  De  Lesseps 
relinquished  the  directorship  of  the  enterprise  and 
returned  home  to  be  tried  and  disgraced  in  the 
courts  of  his  native  land.  Though  exonerated  of  the 
charge  of  misappropriation  of  the  funds  intrusted  to 
him,  he  became  insane  as  a  result  of  his  failure,  and 
died  in  1894,  not  knowing  that  his  countrymen, 
grateful  for  the  services  he  had  rendered  the  world 
by  his  achievement  at  Suez,  would^  one  day  erect  an 
appropriate  monument  to  his  memory  on  the  site  of 
his  successes. 

In  1887,  the  sea  level  type  of  canal  was  abandoned 
for  the  lock  type.  But  the  change  came  too  late, 
and  hi  1889  the  company  went  into  the  hands  of  a 
receiver.  The  story  of  the  French  attempt  may 
be  summed  up  hi  one  statement :  Eighty  million 
cubic  yards  of  earth  had  been  excavated  at  a  cost 
of  $260,000,000. 

When  this  story  is  impartially  written,  it  will  tell 
how  brave  men  suffered,  despaired,  died  in  an  unsuc- 
cessful though  none  the  less  heroic  effort  to  advance 
the  world's  interests.  Everywhere  along  the  canal 


14  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

line  in  the  early  days  of  American  operations  were 
sad  evidences  of  the  French  failure.  Rusty,  broken- 
down,  jungle-covered  locomotives,  cars,  cranes,  ex- 
cavators; stacks  of  bent,  twisted  steel  rails;  sunken 
dredges,  tugs  and  anchors,  marked  the  path  of  the 
French  failure  from  Panama  to  Colon,  and  testified 
to  the  eyes  of  the  traveler  in  no  unmistakable  terms 
of  the  serious  mindedness  of  those  men  who  were 
bold  in  conception  but  erring  in  their  estimate  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  undertaking. 

The  diagram  on  page  16  shows  the  comparative 
amounts  of  excavation  accomplished  by  the  French 
in  then*  seven  years'  trial  and  by  the  Americans 
in  the  years  up  to  July,  1909.  It  gives  convinc- 
ing proof  of  the  seriousness  with  which  the  French 
company  attacked  the  Herculean  task.  Says  Mr. 
Rousseau,  "When  we  consider  the  handicaps  in 
the  way  of  unsanitary  conditions  under  which  the 
French  worked,  we  have  increased  admiration  for 
what  they  accomplished." 

In  1894  Brunet,  the  receiver  of  the  French  com- 
pany, transferred  its  rights  and  property  to  "The 
New  Panama  Canal  Company,"  which  prosecuted 
the  work  in  a  desultory  sort  of  way  until  1904, 
when  the  canal  properties  were  purchased  by  the 
American  government  for  $40,000,000. 


CHAPTER  III 

PANAMA  BECOMES  A  REPUBLIC 

THE  taking  over  by  the  United  States  of  the 
French  properties  and  concessions  was  of  greater 
moment  in  the  history  of  Central  American  politics 
than  even  the  wisest  statesmen  anticipated.  The 
French  company  held  its  concession  from  the  United 
States  of  Colombia,  of  which  Panama  was  a  de- 
pendency. The  negotiations  incident  to  American 
occupation  of  the  canal  site  precipitated  a  brief 
but  eventful  diplomatic  dispute  which  culminated 
in  the  successful  revolt  of  Panama,  and  in  the  speedy 
recognition  of  her  independence  by  the  United  States 
and  by  the  other  great  powers. 

Following  the  Hay-Pauncefote  treaty,  which  gave 
the  United  States  the  right  to  build  the  canal,  Con- 
gress and  the  country  engaged  in  a  long  discus- 
sion as  to  which  route  should  be  chosen,  Nicaragua 
or  Panama.  The  Spooner  Bill,  which  finally  became 
a  law  on  June  28,  1902,  authorized  the  President  to 
offer  the  French  company  at  Panama  $40,000,000 
for  its  rights,  provided  that  the  government  of  the 
United  States  could  also  acquire  from  Colombia, 
on  reasonable  terms,  a  strip  of  territory  for  a  canal 

17 


18  THE    STORY   OF   PANAMA 

zone.  Should  the  Administration  be  unable  to  ac- 
complish this,  after  waiting  a  reasonable  time  for 
action  by  Colombia,  it  was  to  open  negotiations  with 
Nicaragua  for  a  canal  route. 

Despite  the  favor  with  which  Americans  looked  on 
Panama,  it  was  very  soon  evident  that  the  Republic 
of  Colombia  had  little  disposition  to  make  what  the 
United  States  deemed  a  reasonable  treaty.  Civil 
war  was  in  progress  in  Colombia  and  had  extended 
to  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  —  that  very  part  of  her 
possessions  through  which  the  government  of  the 
United  States  desired  a  canal  zone. 

Despite  the  very  -favorable  terms  of  the  pre- 
liminary protocol,  in  which  Colombia  was  offered 
a  bonus  of  $7,000,000  and  an  annuity  of  $250,000 
after  fourteen  years,  that  country  informed  the 
Secretary  of  State,  John  Hay,  that  she  would  not 
accept  the  proposition.  The  capital,  Bogota,  was 
at  that  time  controlled  by  politicians  who  were  prone 
to  consider  only  the  immediate  future,  and  were 
willing  to  sacrifice  the  vital  interests  of  Panama, 
if  necessary  to  secure  their  ends.  The  Colombian 
government  claimed  that  the  French  company's 
franchise  could  only  last,  at  the  utmost,  until  Octo- 
ber, 1910,  while  the  Colombian  Congress  had  never 
ratified  its  extension  beyond  1904.  Now  if  the 
politicians  at  Bogota  could  force  Colombia  to  "sit 
tight"  for  a  year  and  a  half,  until  1904,  possibly  the 


PANAMA  BECOMES  A  REPUBLIC         19 

$40,000,000  that  the  United  States  was  to  pay  the 
French  company  would  go,  not  to  that  concern,  but 
into  the  Colombian  treasury. 

Then  Concha,  the  Colombian  Minister,  was  re- 
placed by  Dr.  Kenan ;  and  on  January  22,  1903,  the 
Hay-Herran  treaty  was  drawn  up.  Under  its  terms, 
Colombia  was  to  authorize  the  French  company  to 
sell  its  property  to  the  United  States,  to  give  the 
United  States  a  strip  thirty  miles  wide  for  a  canal 
zone,  to  retain  sovereignty  over  this  strip  but  to  give 
the  United  States  police  control.  In  return  Colombia 
was  to  get  $10,000,000  at  once  and  $100,000  yearly 
after  the  ninth  year.  This  treaty  the  Colombian 
Congress  failed  to  ratify,  and  on  October  31,  1903, 
negotiations  were  finally  given  up.  The  Panama 
proposition  looked  hopeless  unless  something  speedily 
happened. 

Something  did  happen.  On  November  3,  1903, 
Panama  revolted  and  severed  a  connection  of  eighty- 
two  years  with  the  South  American  republic.  Be- 
fore discussing  the  incidents  of  this  momentous 
change  let  us  examine,  briefly,  the  history  of  Panama 
as  a  province  of  the  Republic  of  Colombia. 

When  in  1819  that  part  of  South  America  known 
as  New  Granada  revolted  from  Spain  under  the  pa- 
triot Simon  Bolivar,  it  was  soon  joined  by  Panama, 
which  threw  off  the  Spanish  yoke  in  1821.  This 
union  proved  irksome  for  Panama.  Much  of  the 


20  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

time  it  was  nothing  more  than  a  province  of  Colombia, 
which  did  not  hesitate  to  exploit  it  for  her  own  ad- 
vantage. After  repeated  revolutions  on  the  part  of 
the  citizens  of  Panama,  Colombia  in  1858  formed 
the  Confederaddn  Granadina,  by  which  Panama  was 
made  one  of  several  " states,"  self-governing  as  to 
internal  affairs.  This  autonomy  proved  a  shadow 
and  was  followed  in  two  years  by  another  revolu- 
tion. Again  in  1884  followed  still  another  revolu- 
tion, resulting  in  the  formation  by  Colombia  of  a 
highly  centralized  state.  From  this  time  on,  as  one 
writer  expresses  it,  Panama  was  the  "  milch  cow  for 
a  coterie  of  politicians  at  Bogota. " 

The  government  at  Bogota  was  never  able  to 
maintain  effective  local  government  on  the  Isthmus. 
One  disturbance  after  another  followed  in  rapid  suc- 
cession through  the  years.  In  fifty-seven  years  there 
had  been  fifty-three  uprisings.  Six  times  United 
States  marines  had  landed  to  protect  the  property 
of  the  Panama  Railroad,  four  times  Colombia  had 
requested  the  United  States  to  protect  her  Isthmian 
interests  and  restore  order.  The  memorable  Night 
of  Horror  in  1855,  when  sixteen  American  lives  were 
lost  in  a  pitched  battle  at  the  railroad  station  in 
Panama,  is  an  example.  Colombia  finally  paid  the 
American  interests  $100,000  for  property  destroyed 
in  this  riot. 

Let  the  people  of  Panama  relate  a  few  of  their 


PANAMA  BECOMES  A  REPUBLIC        21 

grievances  against  Colombia  as  they  have  left  them  in 
enduring  form  in  their  Declaration  of  Independence: 
".  .".  the  people  (of  Panama)  and  the  Isthmian 
territory  were  a  source  of  fiscal  revenue  to  Colombia 
and  nothing  more.  The  contracts  and  the  negotia- 
tions of  the  railroad  and  the  canal  in  Panama  and 
the  national  revenues  collected  on  the  Isthmus  have 
produced  for  Colombia  immense  sums  .  .  . ;  and 
from  this  immense  total  the  Isthmus  has  not  re- 
ceived the  benefit  of  a  bridge  for  any  of  its  many 
rivers,  nor  that  of  the  construction  of  a  road  between 
its  towns,  nor  that  of  a  public  building,  nor  that  of  a 
school,  nor  of  any  interest  in  promoting  any  of  its 
industries,  nor  has  the  least  part  of  that  vast  sum 
been  employed  in  promoting  its  prosperity."  Now 
on  top  of  these  grievances  the  Isthmian  people 
saw  Colombia  willing  to  sacrifice  the  whole  future 
of  Panama  by  risking  the  transfer  of  the  canal  route 
to  Nicaragua ! 

That  the  citizens  of  Panama  did  not  break  away 
from  Colombia  with  rankling  hatred  is  evidenced 
by  the  closing  words  of  their  declaration:  "In 
separating  ourselves  from  our  brothers  of  Colombia, 
we  do  it  without  rancor  and  without  joy.  As  a 
child  that  separates  itself  from  the  paternal  home, 
the  Isthmian  people,  in  adopting  the  life  they  have 
chosen,  have  done  it  with  sorrow,  but  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  their  supreme  and  imperious  duty.  .  .  . 


22  THE   STOKY   OF  PANAMA 

Let  us  commence,  then,  to  form  ourselves  among 
the  free  nations  of  the  world,  considering  Colombia 
as  a  sister  nation,  with  whom  we  shall  always  be 
what  the  circumstances  demand  and  for  whose 
prosperity  we  have  the  most  fervent  and  sincere 
wishes." 

In  this  r£sum6  of  the  revolution  itself  the  names  of 
the  many  illustrious  Panamanian  citizens  who  accom- 
plished it  are  omitted,  because  of  limited  space. 
Colombia  must  have  known  that  there  existed 
a  revolutionary  junta  composed  of  the  best  citizens 
of  Panama.  Indeed,  she  had  not  been  without 
warning  from  the  Panamanians  themselves  that, 
should  she  fail  to  ratify  the  canal  treaty,  Panama 
would  declare  her  independence.  Unable  to  effect 
the  change  alone,  the  Panama  junta  sought  outside 
aid  by  sending  Dr.  Amador  to  the  United  States. 

This  distinguished  Panamanian  could  secure  no 
promises  of  help  from  the  Washington  government. 
However,  he  soon  saw  a  way  in  which  that  govern- 
ment could  be  so  placed  that  it  would  be  under  the 
necessity  of  helping  to  defend  the  independence  of 
Panama.  If  Panama  could,  by  a  sudden  coup, 
break  away  from  Colombia  and  declare  her  independ- 
ence, then  the  United  States  would,  perforce,  pro- 
tect its  property  in  Panama  from  any  alien,  even  if 
that  alien  were  Colombia  itself.  With  this  plan 
worked  out,  Dr.  Amador  returned  to  Panama.  He 


> 
PANAMA  BECOMES  A  REPUBLIC        25 

had  the  support  of  Philippe  Bunau-Varilla,  a  promi- 
nent French  engineer,  who  had  his  heart  set  on  see- 
ing the  Panama  Canal  built  by  the  United  States. 

Bunau-Varilla  lent  his  aid  to  the  revolutionary 
junta,  and  was  selected  by  it  to  represent  Panama  in 
framing  a  canal  treaty  with  the  United  States. 
Upon  Amador's  return  the  wheels  of  revolution  were 
set  in  motion. 

November  4,  1903,  was  set  for  the  date  of 
the  coup,  but  it  was  precipitated  a  day  earlier  by 
Colombia  herself.  Alarmed  at  last,  the  government 
at  Bogota  sent  an  "army"  to  Panama.  This  army, 
which  was  representative  of  the  disorganized  con- 
dition of  Colombia  at  the  tune,  consisted  of  four 
hundred  and  fifty  soldiers.  They  arrived  in  Colon, 
but  found  that  the  Panama  Railroad  would  not 
transport  them  without  carfare  —  a  thing  they  did 
not  have.  The  fifteen  officers  succeeded  in  getting 
together  the  price  of  transportation  to  Panama  City ; 
they  had  to  leave  then1  forces  bivouacked  in  the  streets 
of  Colon. 

The  officers  were  met  with  all  courtesy  by  General 
Huertas,  a  Panamanian  patriot,  who  was  heart  and 
soul  in  the  revolutionary  movement.  They  were 
entertained  at  dinner,  but  when  they  asked  to  see 
the  sea  wall  they  were  arrested  by  General  Huertas, 
at  a  prearranged  signal,  and  were  informed  that  they 
were  prisoners  of  war;  Panama  was  independent. 


26  THE   STORY   OF  PANAMA 

Protestation  availing  nothing,  the  Colombians  could 
get  out  of  their  plight  only  by  acquiescing  gracefully. 
Meanwhile  their  soldiers  in  Colon  were  being  looked 
after  by  the  citizens  and  by  the  Panama  Railroad; 
they  were  prevented  from  doing  any  damage.  Five 
days  later  the  whole  Colombian  force  departed  from 
the  Isthmus. 

The  revolution,  effected  in  a  day,  was  practically 
bloodless  —  the  only  life  lost  was  that  of  a  Chinese 
coolie  who  was  killed  in  Panama  when  one  of  the 
three  Colombian  gunboats  fired  its  only  shot  into  the 
city.  The  other  two  boats  raised  the  Panamanian 
flag.  The  local  officers  of  Colombia  were  arrested 
as  a  matter  of  form ;  but  most  of  them,  like  Governor 
Obaldia,  were  glad  to  enroll  themselves  later  as  citi- 
zens of  Panama. 

On  November  4,  Panama  was  declared  a  free 
and  independent  republic,  and  on  November  7  the 
United  States  recognized  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment. By  January,  1904,  practically  all  the  nations 
of  the  world  had  recognized  the  independence  of 
Panama. 

Within  three  months  from  the  date  of  its  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  Panama  had  become  a  self- 
governing  Republic.  A  constitution  was  drawn  up, 
and  by  February  13,  1904,  it  had  been  signed  by  the 
deputies  to  the  Constitutional  Convention  and  by 
nearly  all  the  leading  Panamanians.  The  Republic 


PANAMA  BECOMES  A  REPUBLIC        27 

is  centralized  in  form,  though  the  municipal  districts 
in  the  various  provinces  have  almost  unlimited 
powers  of  local  government.  The  executive  power 
is  vested  in  the  president,  elected  for  four  years,  with 
the  power  of  appointing  not  only  his  own  cabinet, 
but  also  the  governors  of  the  different  provinces.  His 
executive  orders,  however,  must  be  countersigned 
by  the  secretary  of  state  hi  the  particular  depart- 
ment to  which  the  order  applies.  He  must  be  a 
Panamanian  by  birth  and  at  least  thirty-five  years 
of  age.  He  has  a  limited  veto  in  legislative  matters. 

The  National  Assembly  consists  of  one  chamber 
to  which  deputies  are  elected  for  a  term  of  four  years, 
one  deputy  for  every  10,000  inhabitants.  The 
deputy  must  be  over  twenty-five  years  old  and  a 
citizen.  The  Assembly  meets  every  other  year, 
opening  on  September  first;  there  may  be  special 
sessions.  The  Supreme  Court  is  composed  of  five 
members  who  must  be  over  thirty  years  old  and  must 
have  practiced  law  for  ten  years.  For  the  adminis- 
tration of  local  government  there  are  the  municipal 
districts  in  the  seven  provinces  of  Bocas  del  Toro, 
Code,  Colon,  Chiriqui,  Los  Santos,  Panama  and 
Veraguas.  There  is  no  state  church,  but  the  Repub- 
lic has  subsidized  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

From  the  first  there  have  been  two  political 
parties  in  the  Republic,  Liberal  and  Conservative, 
the  same  names  as  those  applied  to  the  parties  which 


28  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

existed  in  Panama  when  it  was  a  province  of  Colom- 
bia. The  national  flag  represents  the  friendly  rivalry 
of  these  parties.  It  is  composed  of  four  fields,  one 
of  red  and  one  of  blue,  alternating  with  two  white 
fields.  The  red  is  for  the  Liberals,  the  blue  for  the 
Conservatives,  while  the  white  fields  are  for  peace. 

The  most  important  diplomatic  matter  in  which 
the  new  Republic  engaged  was  the  consummation  of 
the  Hay-Bunau-Varilla  treaty  which  was  signed  at 
Washington  on  November  18,  1903,  and  proclaimed 
February  26,  1904.  Its  terms  are,  briefly :  — 

First,  the  United  States  guarantees  to  maintain 
the  independence  of  the  Republic  of  Panama. 

Second,  Panama  grants  to  the  United  States  in 
perpetuity  a  strip  across  the  Isthmus  extending  five 
miles  on  each  side  of  the  canal,  the  cities  of  Colon 
and  Panama  excepted.  Over  this  strip,  called  the 
Canal  Zone,  the  United  States  is  conceded  absolute 
jurisdiction. 

Third,  all  railway  and  canal  rights  of  the  Zone  are 
ceded  to  the  United  States. 

Fourth,  the  property  of  the  United  States  in  the 
Zone  is  exempt  from  taxation. 

Fifth,  the  United  States  is  to  have  the  right  to 
use  military  force,  to  build  fortifications  and  to  per- 
fect transit. 

Sixth,  the  United  States  is  to  have  sanitary  juris- 
diction over  the  cities  of  Panama  and  Colon,  and  the 


PANAMA  BECOMES  A  REPUBLIC        29 

right  to  preserve  order  in  the  Republic  should  the 
Panamanian  government,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
United  States,  fail  to  do  so. 

Seventh,  the  United  States  agrees  to  pay  Panama 
$10,000,000  at  once,  and  to  pay  an  annuity  of 
$250,000,  beginning  with  the  year  1913. 


CHAPTER  IV 

ON  THE  WORKS 

THE  negotiations  which  gave  us  the  Canal  Zone 
were  not  consummated  with  more  despatch  and 
effectiveness  than  was  the  work  of  organizing  the 
forces  to  construct  the  canal.  The  treaty  with 
Panama  was  ratified  in  February,  1904,  and  from 
that  day  the  work  went  rapidly  forward.  To  ap- 
preciate the  magnitude  of  the  task  and  the  effective- 
ness with  which  the  American  organization  went 
at  it,  let  us  take  a  trip  to  the  Canal  Zone.  For  the 
sake  of  seeing  things  as  they  looked  at  the  most 
interesting  stage  in  the  progress  of  the  work  and  just 
as  the  waters  of  Gatun  Lake  began  to  rise,  we  will 
suppose  that  the  time  of  our  visit  is  back  in  the  year 
1911. 

We  will  start  from  New  York.  On  the  evening 
of  the  third  day  out  we  sight  Watling's  Island,  the 
first  land  seen  in  the  New  World  by  Christopher 
Columbus.  We  cross  the  path  of  the  Great  Navi- 
gator, and  on  the  fourth  day  round  the  eastern  point 
of  the  "Queen  of  the  Antilles."  Just  as  the  sun  sinks 
into  the  Caribbean  we  see  against  the  eastern  sky  the 
blue  mountain  ranges  of  Haiti  and  San  Domingo; 

30 


ON   THE   WORKS  33 

on  the  morning  of  the  sixth  day  out  the  captain  who 
has  been  scanning  the  horizon  announces  that  the 
end  of  our  journey  is  in  sight. 

That  scene  is  one  not  soon  to  be  forgotten.  As  the 
sun  bursts  through  the  clouds  hanging  over  "Fair 
Marguerita's  Hill"  the  whole  world  seems  lit  up 
with  the  glory  that  Keats  describes  as  "wild  and 
celestial."  The  time  and  place  are  full  of  sentiment. 
Upon  those  same  hills  the  great  Columbus  looked 
four  centuries  ago ;  over  these  same  trackless  waters 
glided  the  swift  craft  of  the  buccaneers,  laden  with 
booty;  and 

"  The  waves  are  softly  murmuring 
Stories  of  the  days  of  old." 

Far  to  the  east  of  the  low-lying,  palm-bedecked  island 
of  Manzanillo  are  the  blue  foothills  of  the  Cordilleras, 
just  awakening  from  their  heavy  sleep ;  away  to  the 
south  stretches  the  valley  of  the  Chagres;  while 
there  beyond  Toro's  palms  Lorenzo  rises  out  of  the 
sea 

"  Guarding  the  Chagres'  entrance  still." 

The  cayucas  and  sailboats  hi  the  harbor  belong  to 
San  Bias  Indians,  who  have  come  from  down  the 
coast  forty  or  fifty  miles,  with  coconuts,  bananas, 
beads,  beautifully  woven  textiles  and  other  products. 
They  have  brought  then*  children  with  them.  The 
voyage,  hi  fact,  has  been  a  part  of  the  manual  train- 


34  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

ing  of  the  youngsters,  and  the  bartering  done  by 
their  parents  has  been  a  lesson  in  business  methods 
which  they  must  some  day  apply.  Measured  by 
the  standards  of  the  society  in  which  these  chil- 
dren are  to  move  as  men,  there  will  be  no  fail- 
ures. 

To  the  east,  to  the  west,  to  the  south  are  primeval 
jungles,  still  the  habitations  of  primitive  men  and 
savage  beasts  —  undisturbed  by  the  vandalism  of 
civilization.  After  passing  the  artificial  land  exten- 
sion which  is  to  form  the  breakwater  for  the  Atlantic 
entrance  to  the  canal,  and  which,  by  the  way,  is  the 
first  evidence  of  the  work  of  the  canal  builders,  we 
come  into  Limon  Bay,  just  off  the  twin  cities  of  Colon 
and  Cristobal.  Soon  we  have  a  full  view  of  the 
beautiful  Cristobal,  whose  harbor  we  are  about  to 
enter.  Our  reveries  are  suddenly  interrupted  by  the 
command  to  "  assemble  in  the  saloon."  The  Quar- 
antine Officer  is  coming  aboard.  His  work  done,  we 
land. 

After  inspection  we  are  allowed  to  pass  the  ropes. 
The  train  standing  there  at  our  dock  is  a  " special" 
waiting  to  take  recruits  for  the  service  or  those  re- 
turning from  leave.  Passing  out  at  the  north  end 
of  Pier  11  we  come  in  full  view  of  the  old  De 
Lesseps  buildings,  now  used  for  offices  by  the  Com- 
missary, Subsistence  and  other  departments. 

We  pass  out  upon  Roosevelt  Avenue  and  then 


ON  THE  WORKS  37 

get  a  first  glimpse  of  the  quarters  furnished  white 
employees.  They  are  not  unlike  the  commodious 
quarters  to  be  seen  everywhere  along  the  canal  line. 
They  are  the  homes  of  Americans  who,  because 
they  are  happy  and  contented,  are  bringing  to  a 
speedy  conclusion  this  greatest  of  human  undertak- 
ings. But  if  we  are  to  see  the  canal  in  a  day,  we 
must  hurry.  As  we  are  bound  for  Gatun,  we  will 
take  a  cab  and  drive  to  the  pier.  How  clean  the 
paved  streets  are !  Passing  the  post  office,  the  police 
station,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  clubhouse,  the  I.  C.  C.  hotel, 
the  white  school  building  and  the  fire  station,  we 
come  out  through  the  West  Indian  section  of  Cristobal 
to  Pier  13.  That  boat  at  the  wharf  is  a  dynamite 
carrier,  and  the  men  are  just  beginning  to  unload 
one  and  one  quarter  million  pounds  of  dynamite 
for  use  in  blasting.  This  load  of  dynamite  is  a  part 
of  the  twelve  million  pounds  brought  annually  from 
New  York. 

The  boat  unloading  there  to  those  sand  cars  has 
carried  sand  down  from  Nombre  de  Dios  for  the 
concrete  construction  at  Gatun.  The  forty  or  fifty 
other  large  and  small  vessels  you  see  plying  in  the 
bay  are  the  dredges  and  tugs  in  the  service  of  the 
Atlantic  Division  of  the  Department  of  Construction 
and  Engineering ;  and  there  is  a  boat  with  rock 
from  the  quarries  at  Porto  Bello,  twenty  miles  down 
the  coast.  This  sand  and  rock  will  become  a  part 


38  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

of  the  two  million  cubic  yards  of  concrete  to  be 
molded  into  the  great  leeks  at  Gatun. 

Just  below  us  are  the  docks,  and  the  huge  build- 
ings you  see  beyond  are  those  of  the  Mount  Hope 
storehouse  —  the  clearing  house  for  all  the  depart- 
ments on  the  canal.  In  them  are  stored  stationery, 
school  supplies,  desks,  nails,  wire,  steel  rods,  rope, 
chain,  household  furniture,  steam  shovels,  tools  and 
equipment  of  every  description.  There  is  a  stock 
here  at  all  times  averaging  about  $4,000,000  worth  of 
material.  As  needed,  this  material  is  requisitioned 
through  the  heads  of  departments  and  is  shipped  by 
rail  to  the  points  where  it  is  to  be  used.  The  place 
is  in  charge  of  the  Depot  Quartermaster. 

But  time  is  passing.  To  the  left  of  us  is  Mount 
Hope  cemetery.  It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  that 
the  place  took  its  name  from  the  feeling  back  in  the 
French  days  that  this  was  the  one  hope  to  which 
the  ill-fed,  ill-quartered,  fever-stricken  employees 
could  look  with  any  degree  of  satisfaction  —  Mount 
Hope,  indeed ! 

From  Pier  13  we  may  take  a  boat  for  Gatun. 
We  pass  first  into  the  mouth  of  the  old  French  canal. 
The  intent  of  its  original  builders  was  to  make  it 
thirty  feet  deep  and  seventy  feet  wide  at  the  bottom. 
For  four  miles  we  pass  up  the  channel  of  the  French 
canal,  which  crosses  the  line  of  the  American  canal 
at  Mindi.  The  sunken  boats  and  dredges  which 


ON   THE   WORKS  41 

we  see  on  both  sides  were  at  one  time  considered 
the  best  excavating  machines  in  the  world.  Left 
to  combat  rain,  sun  and  the  sea,  they  at  last  yielded 
to  their  fate  and  lie  there  at  the  bottom  of  the  watery 
grave  they  themselves  helped  to  dig.  These  ma- 
chines represent  another  source  of  enormous  loss  to 
the  French  company.  Some  of  them  survive  and  are 


DIAGRAM  OF   A  LADDER    DREDGE 

now  doing  good  work  for  the  Isthmian  Canal  Com- 
mission. The  ladder  dredge  you  see  at  work  is  one 
of  the  survivors. 

When  we  come  to  Mindi  we  find,  running  to 
right  and  left  at  an  angle  of  about  forty-five  de- 
grees, the  channel  of  the  American  canal.  At 
this  point  the  old  and  the  new  canals  intersect, 
to  converge  again  in  the  Chagres  River  at  Gatun. 
To  get  to  grade  at  this  point  nearly  forty  feet 
of  solid  rock  blasting  had  to  be  done.  Imagine 
the  expense  of  constructing  a  sea  level  canal  when 


42  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

here,  within  sight  of  the  sea,  and  yet  thirty  miles 
from  the  continental  divide,  it  becomes  necessary  to 
excavate  through  solid  rock  for  a  depth  of  more 
than  forty  feet ! 

While  we  are  approaching  the  great  dam,  we  might 
gather  some  general  information.  The  frontispiece 
map  indicates  the  extent  of  the  Canal  Zone,  the  line 
of  the  Canal  and  the  Zone  boundaries,  and  the  loca- 
tion of  Gatun  Lake,  formed  from  the  impounding  of 
the  Chagres  by  Gatun  Dam. 

In  a  booklet  compiled  by  Mr.  Joseph  Bucklin 
Bishop,  Secretary  of  the  Commission,  there  is  a  con- 
densed table,  which  summarizes  the  canal  statistics ; 
revised  to  October  1,  1912,  they  are :  — 

CANAL  STATISTICS 

Length  from  deep  water  to  deep  water  (miles)  50 

Length  from  shore  line  to  shore  line  (miles)  40 

Bottom  width  of  channel,  maximum  (feet)  1000 
Bottom  width  of  channel,  minimum,  9  miles, 

Culebra  Cut  (feet) 300 

Locks,  in  pairs 12 

Locks,  usable  length  (feet) 1000 

Locks,  usable  width  (feet) 110 

Gatun  Lake,  area  (square  miles)   .    '.     .     .  164 

Gatun  Lake,  channel  depth  (feet)      ...  85  to  45 

Culebra  Cut,  channel  depth  (feet)  ...  45 
Excavation,  estimated  total  (cubic  yards)  .  200,000,000 


ON   THE   WORKS  43 

Excavation,  amount  accomplished  Octo- 
ber 1,  1912  (cubic  yards) 180,000,000 

Excavation  by  the  French  (cubic  yards)     .  78,146,960 

Excavation  by  French,  useful  to  present 

Canal  (cubic  yards)  i 29,908,000 

Excavation  by  French,  estimated  value  to 

Canal $25,389,240 

Value  of  all  French  property $42,799,826 

Concrete,  total  estimated  for  Canal  (cubic 

yards) 5,000,000 

Time  of  transit  through  completed  Canal 

(hours) 10  to  12 

Time  of  passage  through  locks  (hours)   .     .  3 

Relocated  Panama  Railroad,  estimated  cost  $9,000,000 

Relocated  Panama  Railroad,  length  (miles)  47.1 

Canal  Zone,  area  (square  miles)    ....  448 

Canal  and  Panama  Railroad  force  actually 

at  work  (about) 35,000 

Canal  and  Panama  Railroad  force,  Ameri- 
cans (about) 5000 

Cost  of  Canal,  estimated  total      ....  $375,000,000 

Work  begun  by  Americans May  4,  1904 

Anticipated  date  of  completion      ....  Jan.  1,  1915 

In  an  article  in  the  National  Geographic  Magazine 
of  February,  1911,  Colonel  Goethals  gives  the  follow- 
ing condensed  statement :  — 

"The  canal  which  is  now  building  consists  of  a  sea  level 
entrance  channel  from  the  sea  through  Limon  Bay  to  Ga- 
tun,  about  7  miles  long,  500  feet  bottom  width,  and  41 


44  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

feet  deep  at  mean  tide.  At  Gatun  the  85-foot  lake  level 
is  obtained  by  a  dam  across  the  valley.  The  lake  is 
confined  on  the  Pacific  side  by  a  dam  between  the  hills 
at  Pedro  Miguel,  32  miles  away.  The  lake  thus  formed 
will  have  -an  area  of  164  square  miles  and  a  channel 
depth  of  not  less  than  45  feet  at  normal  stage. 

"At  Gatun  ships  will  pass  from  the  sea  to  the  lake 
level,  and  vice  versa,  by  three  locks  in  flight.  On  the 
Pacific  side  there  will  be  one  lift  of  30  feet  at  Pedro  Miguel 
to  a  small  lake  held  at  55  feet  above  sea  level  by  dams  at 
Miraflores,  where  two  lifts  overcome  the  difference  of  level 
to  the  sea.  The  channel  between  the  locks  on  the  Pacific 
side  will  be  500  feet  wide  at  the  bottom  and  45  feet  deep, 
and  below  the  Miraflores  locks  the  sea  level  section,  about 
8  miles  in  length,  will  be  500  feet  wide  at  the  bottom  and  45 
feet  deep  at  mean  tide.  Through  the  lake  the  bottom 
widths  are  not  less  than  1000  feet  for  about  16  miles,  800 
feet  for  about  4  miles,  500  feet  for  about  3  miles,  and 
through  the  continental  divide,  a  distance  of  about  9  miles, 
the  bottom  width  is  300  feet. 

"The  total  length  of  the  canal  from  deep  water  in  the 
Caribbean,  41 -foot  depth  at  mean  tide,  to  deep  water  in 
the  Pacific,  45-foot  depth  at  mean  tide,  is  practically  50 
miles,  15  miles  of  which  are  at  sea  level.  The  variation 
in  tide  on  the  Atlantic  side  is  2.5  feet  as  a  maximum,  and 
on  the  Pacific  it  is  21.1  feet  as  a  maximum. 

"Provisions  are  made  to  amply  protect  the  entrances 
of  the  canal.  During  the  winter  months  occasional 
storms  occur  on  the  Atlantic  side  of  such  violence  that 
vessels  cannot  lie  with  safety  in  Colon  Harbor,  and  during 


ON   THE   WORKS 


47 


the  progress  of  such  storms  entrance  and  egress  from  the 
canal  would  be  unsafe.  To  overcome  this  condition,  a 
breakwater  will  extend  out  about  two  miles  from  Toro 
Point  in  a  northeasterly  direction,  which  will  not  only 
protect  the  entrance,  but  will  provide  a  safe  harbor. 
"The  Pacific  entrance  requires  no  protection  from 
storms,  but  the  set  of  the  silt-bearing  current  from  the 
east  is  at  right  angles  to  the  channel,  and  the  silting 
made  constant  dredging  necessary.  To  prevent  this 
shoaling  a  dike  is  being  constructed  from  the  mainland  at 
Balboa  to  Naos  Island,  a  distance  of  about  four  miles." 

The  following  table  presents  comparative  data:  — 


GREAT  CANALS 

KIND 

WHEN 
OPENED 
TO  COM- 

MEKCK 

LENGTH 

IN 

MILES 

COST 

CONNECTS 

Erie    .... 

Lock 

1825 

363 

IS.OOO.OOO1 

Lake    Erie    and 

Hudson    River 

Soo     .     .     .     . 

Lock 

1855 

1.5 

10,000,000 

Lakes      Superior 

and  Huron 

Suez  .... 

Sea  level 

1869 

90 

100,000,000 

Mediterranean 

and  Red  Seas 

Kronstadt  .     . 

Sea  level 

1890 

16 

10,000,000 

St.       Petersburg 

and      Bay     of 

Kronstadt 

Corinth  .     .    . 

Sea  level 

1893 

4 

5,000,000 

Gulfs  of  Corinth 

and  J2gina 

Manchester      . 

Lock 

1894 

35 

75,000,000 

Liverpool        and 

Manchester 

Kaiser  Wilhelm 

Lock 

1895 

60 

40,000,000 

Niemen       River 

and  the  Baltic 

Elbe-Trave  .     . 

Lock 

1900 

41 

6,000,000 

Elbe  and  Trave 

Panama  ... 

Lock 

1915 

50 

375,000,000 

Atlantic  and  Pa- 

cific Oceans 

1  Original  cost. 


48  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

While  the  great  dam  is  still  half  a  mile  away  we 
may  get  a  good  conception  of  its  general  plan.  To 
the  extreme  left  are  massive  walls  of  concrete.  These 
are  the  walls  of  the  locks.  The  mound  of  earth  t ; 
the  right  is  the  dam  proper,  which  is  pierced  near  tl.r 
middle  by  the  spillway.  It  may  be  said  that  t. 
construction  of  the  Panama  Canal  involves  at  once 
the  greatest  piece  of  constructive  work  and  the 
greatest  piece  of  destructive  work  ever  undertaken 
by  man  —  the  locks,  dams  and  spillways,  and  the 
Culebra  Cut. 

Gatun  Dam  is  about  7500  feet  long,  2100  feet 
wide  at  the  base  and  100  feet  wide  at  the  summit  of 
the  crest,  115  feet  above  sea  level.  In  building  this 
mountain  of  earth  a  huge  artificial  valley  was  left 
in  the  middle,  which  is  being  filled  with  a  mixture  of 
sand  and  clay  pumped  in  by  dredges  at  work  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  dam.  The  silt  settles  down  into  a 
hard,  rock-like  mass  which  is  impervious  to  water. 
The  walls  or  outer  portions  of  the  dam  are  built 
from  dry  excavation  brought  in  from  other  points 
along  the  canal. 

Our  boat  lands  at  the  foot  of  the  dam.  Let  us 
climb  the  man-made  mountain.  There,  right  before 
us,  is  the  great  water  pipe  pouring  forth  its  black 
slime  into  what  is  to  be  the  core  of  the  dam.  This 
sea  of  mud  the  engineers  term  the  hydraulic  fill. 
The  other  end  of  the  pipe  connects  with  a  suction 


I.    THE   GREAT   WATER    PIPE   IN   THE    "  FILL  "  (49) 

II.     LOADING    BUCKETS   WITH   CEMENT,    AT    GATUN 


ON   THE   WORKS  51 

dredge  nearly  a  mile  distant.  The  excavation,  wet 
and  dry,  used  in  the  construction  of  the  dam  aggre- 
gates 21,000,000  cubic  yards. 

Below  is  a  diagram  of  the  entire  work.  We  are 
standing  at  the  point  marked  X,  facing  to  the  south- 
east. To  the  left  are  the  great  locks.  In  front  of 
us  is  the  hydraulic  fill ;  to  the  right,  the  spillway, 


QATUN    DAM,    SPILLWAY   AND   LOCKS 

with  its  mad,  irresistible  torrent  of  water.  Close 
your  eyes,  and  imagine,  if  you  can,  a  cement-lined, 
waterless  depression  300  feet  wide,  1200  feet  long, 
with  forty  or  fifty  huge  cubical  concrete  blocks  dis- 
persed at  regular  intervals  near  the  upper  end,  the 
bottom  sloping  upward  from  these  to  the  concrete 
dam,  and  you  have  the  spillway  as  it  appeared  on 
the  day  before  the  Chagres  was  turned  into  its  new 
concrete  bed.  Open  your  eyes  upon  the  foaming, 
raging,  seething  rapids,  and  you  have  the  contrast 


52 


THE    STORY   OF   PANAMA 


presented  in  the  two  pictures  " Before"  and  "  After." 
At  the  foot  of  the  slope  the  channel  of  the  over- 
flow suddenly  widens  to  twice  its  previous  width. 
This  sudden  widening,  and  the  concrete  blocks  above 
mentioned,  provide  two  very  effective  checks  to  the 
velocity  of  the  current.  These  checks  are  necessary, 
for  without  them  the  under  suction  which  would  be 


DIAGRAM  OF   SPILLWAY 

caused  as  the  waters  leave  the  concrete  floor  would 
quickly  undermine  the  floor  itself. 

Notice  the  semicircular  construction,  made  of 
concrete,  that  is  placed  at  the  head  of  the  spillway. 
Against  this  form  the  spillway  dam  is  being  built. 
At  the  top  of  this  dam  sliding  gates  will  be  con- 
structed. From  above,  the  form  presents  an  ap- 
pearance something  like  the  diagram. 


ON  THE  WORKS  55 

By  this  device  the  waters  of  the  lake  may  be  raised 
or  lowered  when  reports  from  the  Alhajuela  fluvio- 
graph  station  warn  of  floods,  or  when  the  approach- 
ing dry  season  renders  advisable  a  greater  storage 
supply.  The  maximum  overflow  at  the  spillway 
may  thus  always  be  kept  within  safe  limits,  while 
storage  for  the  dry  season  may  likewise  be  provided. 

Remember,  while  we  walk  the  next  mile,  that  we 
are  still  walking  on  the  dam.  An  artificial  mountain, 
indeed  !  Ribboned  everywhere  with  railroad  tracks, 
over  which  scores  of  trains  run  daily,  carrying  their 
mites  to  contribute  to  the  ever  growing  dam.  We 
again  pass  around  the  north  side  of  the  hydraulic  fill, 
and  approach  the  factories  where  the  composition 
that  is  to  go  into  the  locks  and  into  the  dam  is  made. 

A  most  interesting  feature  is  the  making,  handling 
and  placing  of  the  concrete.  The  machines  with  the 
funnel-shaped  nozzles  are  the  concrete  mixers.  (See 
second  cut,  page  49.)  The  cars  standing  at  the  side 
are  run  by  the  third-rail  system,  so  have  a  care.  One 
of  the  mixers  is  now  tilted  and  is  filling  the  bucket 
with  concrete.  In  a  very  few  minutes  all  the  buck- 
ets will  be  filled,  and  the  little  cars  will  go  spinning 
down  the  track  with  then-  loads  of  sand,  water,  stone 
and  cement.  We  shall  see  later  how  this  material  is 
deposited  in  the  huge  molds  in  which  the  locks  are 
being  cast.  There  are  four  of  the  big  mixers  on  each 
side  of  the  shed.  We  will  now  walk  over  to  the 


56  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

great  concrete  locks,  where  we  can  see  one  of  them 
in  process  of  construction.  Note  the  middle  wall 
rising  to  a  height  of  ninety  feet,  between  the  east  and 
west  chambers  of  the  locks.  (See  page  63.)  The 
great  cylinder  at  the  base  of  this  wall  is  one  of  the 
three  delivery  and  drainage  culverts.  This,  as  you 
will  note,  is  duplicated  in  size  by  culverts  in  the  side 
walls.  The  three  culverts  are  eighteen  feet  minimum 
diameter  and  extend  the  entire  length  of  the  walls, 
or  more  than  three  thousand  feet. 

Above  the  side  walls  to  the  right  are  the  buckets 
which  come  from  the  concrete  mixers  we  visited. 
These  buckets,  with  their  tons  of  concrete,  are  hoisted 
to  wire  cables  attached  to  steel  derricks  on  either 
side  of  the  works,  and  run  out  on  pulleys  to  the 
point  where  the  concrete  is  to  be  used.  They  are 
then  lowered,  their  contents  is  dumped,  and  spread 
by  hand.  The  whole  process  of  delivery  involves 
the  labor  of  a  very  few  men.  A  daily  average  of 
more  than  twenty-four  hundred  cubic  yards  of  con- 
crete is  thus  laid. 

A  glance  at  the  railroad  tracks,  regular  width, 
running  up  into  the  chambers  on  either  side  of  the 
middle  wall,  will  indicate  to  some  extent  the  pro- 
portions of  the  structure. 

The  view  of  the  monolith  on  page  59  shows  the  cul- 
vert with  a  projecting  steel  tube.  This  tube  is  re- 
moved and  replaced  for  another  length  when  the 


ON   THE   WORKS  57 

concrete  about  it  becomes  set.  The  steel  framework 
against  the  left  side  of  the  middle  wall  is  supporting 
a  part  of  the  mold  into  which  the  concrete  form  has 
been  cast. 

Looking  from  the  east  wall  one  gets  a  good  view 
of  the  upper  locks,  the  concrete  gate  sills,  and  in 
the  distance  the  waters  of  the  Chagres  backed  up 
by  the  elevation  of  the  spillway.  The  lake  will  rise 
almost  to  the  elevation  of  the  wall  when  the  dam  is 
completed. 

Again,  one  gets  a  fair  conception  of  the  proportions 
of  this  work  by  a  glance  at  the  opening  through  the 
gate  sills.  Through  this  opening  a  railway  locomo- 
tive may  pass.  Over  these  gate  sills  will  swing  the 
heavy  steel  gates.  Had  you  visited  the  place  in 
March,  1910,  you  would  have  seen  the  foundation 
work  of  this  mountain  of  concrete  as  reproduced  on 
page  63. 

The  general  plan  of  the  locks  and  their  operation 
is  shown  in  the  cross  section  diagram,  page  58.  The 
inside  surfaces  of  the  side  walls  are  perpendicular, 
while  the  outside  surface  rises  by  steps.  At  the  base 
these  walls  are  fifty  feet  thick ;  at  the  top,  eight  feet 
thick.  The  middle  wall  is  slightly  more  than  sixty 
feet  thick.  As  already  indicated,  the  openings  at 
the  base  of  the  walls  are  for  delivery  and  drainage. 
The  culverts  are  eighteen  feet  in  diameter,  and  con- 
nect by  lateral  culverts  with  openings  in  the  floor, 


58  THE   STORY  OF   PANAMA 

F  F  F  F.  The  second  chamber  in  the  middle  wall, 
marked  C  in  the  cut,  is  the  drainage  gallery;  the 
third,  B,  will  be  used  for  the  electrical  connections, 
while  the  upper  chamber,  A,  will  furnish  working 
space  for  the  operators  of  the  machinery  used  in 


CROSS   SECTION  OP  LOCK  CHAMBER   AND  WALLS 

A. — Passageway  for  operators.  E.  —  Culverts  under  the  lock  floor  alter- 

B.  —  Gallery  for  electric  wires.  nating  with  those  from  side  walls. 

C.  —  Drainage  gallery.  F.  —  Wells  opening  from  lateral  culverts 

D.  —  Culvert  in  center  wall.  into  lock  chamber. 

G.  —  Culverts  in  side  walls. 
H.  —  Lateral  culverts. 

manipulating  the  gates  and  the  valves  and  in  pro- 
pelling boats  through  the  locks. 

A  ship  passing  south  will  enter  the  first  lock  at 
sea  level ;  the  gate  behind  it  will  then  be  closed  and 
the  first  lock  filled  with  water.  This  will  raise  the 
boat  to  a  water  level  with  the  second  lock,  and  so 
on.  In  passing  north  through  the  left  series  the 
order  is  reversed. 

The  danger  of  a  boat's  ramming  the  gates  either  by 
forward  or  by  backward  motion  is  guarded  against 
in  several  ways.  First,  the  boat  will  be  drawn 
through  the  locks  by  electric  locomotives  running 
on  the  side  walls.  The  stern  of  the  boat  will  be  con- 
trolled by  two  cables  with  power  attachments,  so 


I.    MONOLITHS    IN    MIDDLE    WALL,    UPPER    GATUN,    JULY,    1910 
II.     GATUN    UPPER   LOCKS,    SHOWING    GATE    SILLS  (59) 


ON  THE   WORKS  61 

that  at  any  point  the  boat  may  be  brought  to  a  stand. 
This  system  of  four  cables  likewise  guards  against 
any  possibility  of  the  lateral  motion  of  the  boat 
against  the  side  and  the  middle  walls.  Second,  the 
gates  and  the  valves  are  operated  by  electric  power 
and  are  as  thoroughly  under  control  as  is  the  move- 
ment of  the  boat  itself.  Third,  the  higher  level  is 
separated  from  the  level  next  below  by  two  sets  of 
gates.  At  each  flight  two  barriers  are  thus  provided. 
Fourth,  above  the  upper  gates  are  two  movable  dams 
or  drawbridges  which  can  be  so  manipulated  as  com- 
pletely to  cut  off  the  water  of  the  lake  from  the  water 
of  the  locks. 

Commenting  on  these  various  provisions  against 
accidents,  Commissioner  Rousseau  said  in  an  address 
at  Denver:  " These  devices  have  all  been  success- 
fully tried,  separately,  on  different  locks  in  this  coun- 
try and  abroad,  but  hi  no  case  has  it  ever  been 
deemed  necessary  to  install  all  of  them  in  the  same 
work."  Referring  to  the  first  named  safeguard,  Mr. 
Rousseau  continues:  " Practically  all  recorded  acci- 
dents to  locks  in  recent  years  have  occurred  through 
some  mistaking  of  signals  between  the  pilot  house 
and  the  engine-room  while  the  vessel  has  been  passing 
through  locks  under  its  own  steam.  To  obviate  this 
source  of  danger,  it  is  proposed  to  provide  on  the 
walls  of  the  locks  electric  locomotives,  which  under 
proper  control  will  tow  vessels  through  the  locks, 


62  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

there  being  one  locomotive  on  each  side  of  the  lock 
forward  and  astern,  or  four  in  all,  vessels  not  being 
allowed  to  move  their  propellers  meanwhile." 

The  gates  are  hollow  steel  structures  seven  feet 
thick  and  sixty-five  feet  long,  and  they  vary  in  height 
and  weight  from  forty-five  to  eighty-two  feet  and  from 
three  hundred  to  six  hundred  tons,  respectively. 
Intermediate  gates  cut  the  locks  into  chambers  four 
hundred  and  six  hundred  feet  long.  As  over  90  per 
cent  of  the  merchant  ships  of  the  world  are  under 
six  hundred  feet  in  length,  this  arrangement  makes 
possible  a  great  saving  of  water. 

Adequate  water  supply  is  a  subject  of  great  im- 
portance and  interest.  The  November  visitor  to  the 
Zone  who  has  seen  the  floods  of  the  Chagres  carrying 
before  them  trees,  houses  and  bridges,  submerging 
steam  shovels,  destroying  miles  of  railroad,  will 
never  question  the  adequacy  of  the  water  supply. 
Somebody  has  said  that  in  the  Canal  Zone  there  are 
two  seasons  of  the  year,  the  rainy  and  the  wet.  Still, 
it  rains  only  occasionally  during  the  months  of  Jan- 
uary, February  and  March,  and  during  the  dry 
season  of  1911-1912  there  was  very  little  rain  from 
December  first  to  May  first.  Decidedly  there  is  a 
dry  season  here,  and  during  this  period  of  three 
months  or  more  the  average  flow  of  the  Chagres  for 
the  past  twenty  years  has  been  something  like  six 
hundred  cubic  feet  per  second ;  while  at  one  time 


I.    WEST   CHAMBER,    GATUN   UPPER    LOCKS,    DECEMBER,    1910 
*II.     FOREBAY    AND   LIFT   SILL,    GATUN    LOCKS,  MARCH,    1910        (63) 


ON  THE  WORKS  65 

during  that  period  it  reached  the  very  low  figure  of 
three  hundred  feet  per  second. 

Besides  the  use  of  water  for  electrical  power,  the 
water  supply  will  be  drawn  on  in  three  ways  —  leak- 
age, lockage  and  evaporation.  It  is  estimated  that 
the  loss  in  these  ways  will  be  about  three  thousand 
feet  per  second.  When  the  Chagres  flow  is  at  its 
minimum  of  three  hundred  feet  per  second  there  is  a 
disparity  between  loss  and  supply  of  2700  feet  per 
second.  The  possible  net  loss  in  one  day  would  be 
over  130,000,000  cubic  feet,  and  in  one  month  about 
4,000,000,000  cubic  feet.  It  must  be  remembered, 
however,  in  this  connection  that  three  hundred  feet 
is  the  minimum  flow  of  the  river  itself,  and  that 
these  figures  have  not  taken  into  account  the  dis- 
charge of  its  tributaries  below  Bohio.  The  slope  of 
the  land  on  the  Isthmus  is  very  sharp,  and  as  a  result 
the  minimum  flow  is  reached  early  in  the  dry  season, 
and  as  that  season  lasts  at  times  for  over  three  months, 
it  is  obvious  that  in  an  enterprise  of  such  magnitude 
as  the  Panama  Canal,  involving  so  large  a  part  of  the 
world's  commerce,  provision  must  be  made  against 
the  possibility  of  any  interruption  from  a  shortage 
of  water  supply.  This  contingency  is  met  by  the 
large  area,  164  square  miles,  of  Gatun  Lake.  It  pro- 
vides ample  storage  capacity — losses  from  all  sources 
are  not  likely  to  lower  the  lake  more  than  three  feet  — 
while  the  canal  will  be  usable  after  the  lake  has  been 


66  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

lowered  by  five  feet.  In  the  very  improbable  event 
that  future  commerce  should  make  demands  on  the 
lake  beyond  its  estimated  capacity,  a  dam  which 
might  be  constructed  at  Alhajuela  would  furnish  ad- 
ditional storage  to  be  drawn  upon  in  time  of  need. 

On  our  way  to  lunch  we  shall  pass  the  Adminis- 
tration Building  of  the  Atlantic  Division,  the  Com- 
missary and  Panama  Railroad  Depot,  and  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  Clubhouse.  We  will  visit  the  Isthmian  Canal 
Commission  hotel  for  luncheon.  The  Jamaican 
waiter  first  serves  us  with  soup  of  a  choice  variety, 
then  with  an  A  1  steak,  baked  beans,  mashed  pota- 
toes, salad,  good  bread,  genuine  butter,  apple  pie, 
of  the  variety  mother  makes,  coffee  and  [ice  cream. 
You  may  top  off  the  meal  with  a  Gatun  cocktail 
from  that  amber  bottle  if  you  like.  Bitter  ?  Well, 
yes,  but  you  didn't  give  us  time  to  explain.  The 
cocktail  is  a  solution  of  liquid  quinine !  You  will 
find  such  a  cocktail  as  this  at  every  I.  C.  C.  hotel. 

After  lunch  let  us  take  a  special  train  across  the 
line  of  the  canal.  From  Gatun  the  old  line,  which 
long  ago  was  taken  up  but  on  which  we  are  to  take 
our  imaginary  trip,  winds  its  snaky  way  out  through 
the  jungles  of  the  great  Black  Swamp.  To  right 
and  left  the  impounded  waters  of  the  Chagres 
already  spread  out  before  us  for  miles.  The  cleared 
passage  in  the  jungles  to  the  right  is  the  line  of  the 
canal.  Little  excavation  is  necessary  here,  for  the 


ON   THE   WORKS  O9 

land  to  Bohio  is  practically  all  below  the  grade  line 
of  the  canal. 

Take  a  look  at  nature  now,  while  we  are  out  of 
sight  of  the  canal.  Over  there  is  a  twenty-foot 
alligator,  basking  his  huge  bulk  in  the  sun.  Just 
beyond  him  are  forty  or  fifty  white  cranes ;  wheel- 
ing above  the  water,  now  high,  now  low,  are  many 
varieties  of  sea  birds,  for  we  can  still  scent  the  salt 
sea.  The  train  dashes  into  the  jungles  and  we  see 
"fronded  palms,"  ferns,  canebrakes,  bamboo,  wild 
bananas,  lignum- vitae  with  its  gaudy  dress,  and 
myriads  of  botanical  species  garbed  in  purple,  pink, 
red,  white  and  gold.  You  may  not  see  them,  but 
these  jungles  teem  with  snakes,  lizards,  deer,  jaguars, 
monkeys,  wildcats,  armadillos,  tapirs,  wild  hogs, 
sloths  and  countless  varieties  of  plant  and  animal 
life.  Here  and  there  a  stream  penetrates  the  other- 
wise impenetrable  network  of  vegetable  life  to  break 
the  monotony  of  the  fast  moving  panorama.  Only 
at  such  intervals  does  one  get  an  adequate  notion  of 
the  grace  and  beauty  of  the  tropics  of  Panama. 

Bohio  is  called,  and  as  our  train  slows  down,  the 
voice  of  the  ever-present  vender  of  bananas  is  heard, 
luring  the  hungry  passenger  to  invest.  Just  as  we 
pull  out  from  the  station,  on  the  right  side  of  the 
track,  there  is  a  funny  little  structure  with  a  cylin- 
drical brick  foundation  supporting  a  miniature 
house,  reached  by  a  long  flight  of  stairs.  This  is 


70  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

the  Bohio  fluviograph  station,  and  the  river  is  the 
far  famed  Chagres.  This  is  one  of  several  stations 
along  the  river  where  records  are  made  of  the  volume 
of  water  discharged  by  it.  This  one  was  installed 
by  the  French  in  1890,  and  has  been  in  use  for 
more  than  twenty  years.  The  fluviograph  work 
comes  under  the  Division  of  River  Hydraulics, 
Meteorology  and  Surveys.  The  other  three  stations 
along  the  Chagres  are  at  Gatun,  Gamboa  and  Alha- 
juela.  The  importance  of  measuring  the  river's  dis- 
charge has  already  been  indicated.  The  other  work 
of  this  division,  as  its  name  indicates,  is  the  deter- 
mination of  the  amount  of  rainfall  and  evaporation, 
and  observations  of  seismological  disturbances. 

The  table  on  page  71  summarizes  the  results  of  the 
observations  of  the  Subdivision  of  Meteorology  on 
the  distribution  of  rainfall  on  the  Canal  Zone,  show- 
ing hourly  periods  of  maximum  and  minimum  rain- 
fall during  an  average  year. 

This  table  will  help  one  to  appreciate  one  of  the 
greatest  difficulties  with  which  the  Commission  has 
had  to  contend,  as  well  as  the  mathematical  pre- 
cision and  the  scientific  method  brought  to  bear  on 
this  great  engineering  proposition. 

The  station  just  called  is  Tabernilla.  To  the  left 
is  the  Tabernilla  dump.  Here  millions  of  cubic 
yards  of  dirt  from  Culebra  Cut  have  been  piled  up. 
Had  we  passed  this  point  in  1910  we  should  have 


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72  THE   STORY  OF   PANAMA 

seen  dirt  train  after  dirt  train  going  out  on  this 
dump  with  its  cargo  from  the  Cut,  unloading  with 
its  great  plow.  This  plow  will  unload  a  dirt  train 
of  twenty-one  cars,  carrying  more  than  six  hundred 
tons  of  material,  in  less  than  fifteen  minutes.  The 
train  just  pulling  out  from  the  siding  there  is  a 
typical  labor  train,  which  will  carry  out  on  the  works 
some  six  hundred  of  the  thirty-five  thousand  em- 
ployees of  the  Commission. 

Another  very  interesting  piece  of  work  which  you 
could  have  seen  here  a  little  while  ago  is  that  of 
track  shifting.  Special  machinery  for  this  purpose 
has  been  put  into  service.  As  the  track  quickly 
gets  out  of  reach  of  the  edge  of  the  dump,  it  be- 
comes necessary  to  shift  it.  This  is  not  done  by 
taking  it  to  pieces,  for  not  a  spike  is  lifted,  not  a 
bolt  removed.  The  machine  by  which  the  process 
is  performed  is  a  track  shifter.  It  lays  hold  of  a 
section  of  track,  picks  it  up  bodily,  and  puts  it  in 
position  again  with  very  little  ceremony.  One  of 
these  machines  is  said  to  be  capable  of  moving  from 
one  to  two  miles  of  track  a  day.  It  is  manipulated 
by  nine  men  and  will  do  the  work  of  six  hundred 
laborers.  There  are  ten  of  these  big  machines  in 
the  service  of  the  Commission. 

The  man  you  see  there  with  the  queer  little  ma- 
chine strapped  on  his  back,  and  the  two  others  just 
beyond  him,  are  members  of  the  small  army  whose 


ON   THE   WORKS 


75 


business  it  is  to  guard  the  large  army  of  canal 
diggers  against  a  flank  attack  of  the  enemy  most 
dreaded  in  Panama  —  the  mosquito.  One  man  is 
spraying  the  sides  of  the  ditch  with  larvacide ;  the 
other  two  are  burning  the  grass  along  an  open  ditch 
to  prevent  the  hatching  of  eggs  deposited  in  these 
moist  places  by  mosquitoes. 

Surface  of  Wafer 


MOSQUITOES 

Figures  a  and  6  show  the  larvae  in  water.  At  c  is  shown  the 
position  assumed  by  the  harmless  type  (Culex)  upon  alighting, 
and  at  d  the  position  of  the  dangerous  one.  At  e  is  shown  the 
Anopheles  with  spotted  wings  and  five  hair-like  feelers  in  front ; 
at  /  the  Culex  with  plain  wings  and  three  feelers. 


76  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

You  will  note  by  this  time  that  we  are  following 
the  valley  of  the  Chagres.  The  conductor  calls  San 
Pablo  just  as  we  cross  the  bridge  over  this  river. 
To  the  right  there  are  signs  of  excavation.  We  are 
fast  approaching  the  continental  divide,  and  the 
shallow  excavation  observed  is  really  the  beginning 
of  the  great  Cut.  Just  below  San  Pablo  the  rail- 
road crosses  the  line  of  the  canal  and  follows  that 
line  almost  to  the  Pacific.  If  you  will  watch  closely, 
you  will  see  some  old  French  dredges,  long  ago 
sunk  to  the  bottom  of  the  channel  —  silent  reminders 
of  the  French  failure.  Such  part  of  the  old  French 
machinery  as  is  no  longer  of  use  to  the  Commission 
is  sold  to  the  highest  bidder,  as  so  much  junk. 

But  remember  that  this  first  part  of  our  trip  is 
an  imaginary  one.  For  the  route  we  have  covered 
since  leaving  Gatun  has  been  submerged  for  some 
time,  and  the  people  of  the  little  towns  we  have 
passed  fled  long  ago  to  the  hills  bordering  the  man- 
made  Gatun  Lake.  Had  we  traversed  the  relocated 
line  from  Gatun  to  Gorgona,  we  should  have  seen 
many  of  them  in  their  new  homes.  When  warned 
of  the  rising  floods,  one  old  lady  who  had  lived  at 
Bohio  for  a  half  century,  so  the  story  goes,  expressed, 
with  a  religious  fervor  to  be  envied  by  more  en- 
lightened Christians,  her  faith  in  the  promise,  "And 
the  waters  shall  no  more  become  a  flood."  She 
was,  however,  doomed  to  disappointment,  for  her 


ON   THE   WORKS  77 

little  homestead,  like  thousands  of  others  in  the 
lake  district,  is  now  fathoms  under  water.  The 
government  has  reimbursed  her  for  the  losses  she 
sustained. 

As  we  pass  Gorgona,  Matachin,  Bas  Obispo  and 
Las  Cascadas,  we  are  rapidly  coming  to  the  crest  of 
the  continental  divide.  At  Matachin  the  Chagres 
breaks  off  to  the  east,  and  we  now  leave  its  valley. 
In  some  remote  geological  age  this  river  found  its 
way  through  the  divide  somewhere  near  Culebra 
and  poured  its  floods  into  the  Pacific.  The  final 
upheaval  which  gave  the  Isthmus  its  present  con- 
tour diverted  the  course  of  the  Chagres  to  the  north. 
Were  it  not  to  minimize  the  work  of  man,  we  might 
compare  the  present  artificial  diversion  of  this  river 
with  nature's  diversion  on  the  divide. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  BIG  CUT 

IT  has  already  been  said  that  the  construction  of 
the  canal  involved  at  once  the  greatest  piece  of 
constructive  work  and  the  greatest  piece  of  de- 
structive work  ever  undertaken  by  man.  We  have 
seen  something  of  the  constructive  work,  and  we 
will  now  descend  into  Culebra  Cut  to  see  the  other 
phase  of  this  great  work.  We  enter  the  Cut  just 
below  Matachin. 

Note  the  solid  stone  walls  on  either  side.  Through 
this  flint-like  rock  the  workers  have  cut  a  channel 
three  hundred  feet  wide  at  the  bottom,  and  at 
places  nearly  two  hundred  feet  deep.  The  depth 
of  the  Cut  at  various  points  is  indicated  in  the  dia- 
gram. In  the  Cut  millions  of  pounds  of  the  dyna- 
mite we  saw  unloading  at  Cristobal  have  been  dis- 
charged. As  we  go  up  the  Cut  you  may  witness 
a  blast  of  several  tons  which  will  displace  thousands 
of  yards  of  the  granite-like  mass,  on  which  the  steam 
shovels  are  set  to  work.  You  will  notice  at  the  top 
of  the  bank  of  rock  and  to  the  right  several  queer- 
looking  machines.  These  are  the  compressed  air 
drills  manipulated  by  West  Indians,  and  used  in  drill- 

78 


THE   BIG   CUT 


81 


ing  holes  for  the  dynamite  charges.  The  charges 
are  detonated  by  means  of  electric  connections,  and 
it  is  done  with  such  skill  and  care  that  accidents 
in  the  way  of  premature  discharges,  so  common  in 
the  handling  of  explosives  elsewhere,  are  now  en- 
tirely relegated  to  the  past. 

As  we  pass  up  the  Cut  to  the  next  point  of  attrac- 
tion we  may  make  some  observations  of  interest. 


CULEBRA  CUT 

atCoUHtt 


Culebra  Cut  begins  at  Bas  Obispo  and  the  excava- 
tion gradually  increases  in  depth  for  a  distance  of 
about  five  miles  to  Gold  Hill,  where  it  reaches  the 
maximum  elevation  of  534  feet  on  the  east  bank, 
312  feet  on  the  center  line,  and  410  feet  on  the 
west  bank.  (See  diagram  above.)  At  Gold  Hill, 
Culebra,  the  Pacific  slope  begins,  and  the  Cut 
continues  down  the  southern  incline  to  Pedro 
Miguel,  a  distance  of  three  miles.  While  the  Cut 
proper,  as  the  engineers  define  it,  is  said  to  be  nine 


82  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

miles  in  length,  the  excavation  is  continuous  from 
San  Pablo  to  Pedro  Miguel,  a  distance  of  sixteen  miles. 
The  amount  of  excavation  throughout  this  distance  in 
the  Cut  is  estimated  at  something  near  100,000,000 
cubic  yards,  equivalent  to  a  mound  of  earth  three 
hundred  feet  high,  three  hundred  yards  wide,  and 
two  miles  long.  The  total  excavation  for  the  canal  is 
estimated  at  nearly  200,000,000  cubic  yards.  You  may 
now  extend  our  little  mound  two  miles  farther.  To 
make  these  figures  more  concrete,  imagine  a  team  of 
horses  and  the  ordinary  one-yard  gravel  wagon  at 
work  moving  this  dirt  an  average  distance  of  twenty 
miles,  and  you  have  the  size  of  the  job. 

You  will  notice  that  the  banks  of  the  canal  on 
either  side  are  rising  higher  above  us.  We  are 
approaching  Culebra.  The  suspension  bridge  over 
the  canal  at  Empire  hangs  high  above  our  track,  and 
still  the  side  walls  of  the  canal  are  rising.  The  hills 
rising  beyond  Culebra  are  the  famous  Gold  Hill  and 
Contractor's  Hill.  Through  these  the  steam  shovels 
are  gradually  but  surely  cutting  their  way.  Many 
obstacles  present  themselves,  but  all  are  insignificant 
in  comparison  to  the  one  in  evidence  yonder  —  the 
famous  Culebra  slide,  which,  like  the  mighty  Ameri- 
can glaciers  of  days  gone  by,  is  working  its  way, 
inch  by  inch,  toward  the  prism  of  the  canal.  It  is 
now  estimated  that  this  and  other  slides  involve  the 
removal  of  an  extra  seventeen  million  cubic  yards 


BOTTOM    OF    CANAL   RAISED   EIGHTEEN    FEET   THROUGH    PRES- 
SURE  OF  THE    BROKEN   EAST   BANK,    JUNE,    1910 
II.    CULEBRA  CUT   FROM   CONTRACTOR'S  HILL,   APRIL,    1910       (84) 


THE   BIG   CUT  85 

of  dirt.  The  bulk  just  in  front  of  us  is  only  one  of 
many  subsidiary  slides  —  the  mere  breaking  off 
from  the  main  bulk  of  huge  chunks  which  tumble 
into  the  Cut  like  avalanches,  burying  steam  shovels, 
cars,  locomotives,  tracks,  everything  in  their  way. 
There  are  two  kinds  of  slides;  those  which  slowly 
and  imperceptibly  move  toward  the  Cut,  such  as 
the  largest  Culebra  slide,  covering  an  area  of  nearly 
thirty  acres,  and  the  Cucaracha  slide,  covering  an 
area  of  about  fifty  acres;  and  those  that  break  off 
and  topple  over  precipitately  into  the  Cut.  The 
latter  are  insignificant  hi  point  of  size  as  compared 
with  the  former.  The  total  area  involved  by  the 
slides  in  Culebra  Cut  is  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres, 
equal  in  area  to  a  good-sized  farm  in  the  States. 
The  Cucaracha  slide  began  moving  in  1884,  or 
twenty-eight  years  ago. 

The  Culebra  and  Cucaracha  slides  are  the  most 
notable  among  the  obstacles  to  the  speedy  com- 
pletion of  the  work  in  the  Central  or  Culebra  Divi- 
sion. These  caused  Colonel  Goethals  to  say  in  an 
interview  in  New  York  that  the  only  significant  ele- 
ments in  the  uncertainty  as  to  the  date  of  the  com- 
pletion of  the  canal  are  the  two  big  slides,  and  the 
obstacles  growing  out  of  them.  The  mound  of  earth 
there  in  the  middle  of  the  prism  and  to  the  left  of  our 
tracks  is  one  of  these  obstacles.  The  mound  is  the 
result  of  the  buckling  of  the  bottom  of  the  prism, 


86  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

supposed  to  have  been  caused  by  the  pressure  of  the 
broken  east  bank. 

If  you  could  brave  the  tropical  sun  and  make  the 
climb  to  the  top  of  Gold  Hill,  you  would  get  a  splen- 
did view  of  the  Cut,  and  such  an  appreciation  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  work  as  you  could  not  otherwise 
get.  Here  the  canal  makers  have  had  to  cut  through 
solid  rock  for  a  distance  of  nearly  five  hundred  feet. 

By  climbing  these  steps  we  shall  come  up  into  the 
town  of  Culebra,  and  incidentally  get,  through  the 
muscular  sense,  a  concrete  notion  of  the  depth  of  the 
Cut.  As  we  come  out  on  level  ground  we  may  get  a 
second  concrete  notion  of  the  magnitude  of  the  work, 
for  it  is  near  the  middle  of  the  month,  and  the  pay 
car  has  arrived  to  present  "the  laborer  with  his  hire." 
From  one  end  of  the  Zone  to  the  other  this  train  goes 
on  its  errand  each  month,  distributing  the  earnings 
of  the  makers  of  the  canal. 

Before  we  leave  this  spot,  notice  the  big  steam 
shovels  at  work  below  us.  They  seem  almost  human 
when  at  work.  Under  favorable  conditions  the  big 
fellow  there  will  load  a  Lidgerwood  car  in  about  two 
minutes,  and  a  whole  train  of  cars  in  less  than  fifty 
minutes.  Watch  him  as  he  dips  down  for  his  mouth- 
ful of  dirt,  then  watch  him  hoist  the  seven  or  eight 
tons  of  clay  and  rock,  swing  it  over  to  the  car,  and  de- 
posit it  again  with  less  show  of  effort  than  would  be 
displayed  by  a  boy  with  his  toy  shovel. 


A    SEAGOING    SUCTION    DREDGE 


(87) 


I.    PEDRO    MIGUEL   LOCKS   LOOKING    SOUTH,    AUGUST,    1910 
II.    PEDRO   MIGUEL   LOCKS   LOOKING   NORTH,   NOVEMBER,    1910 

(88) 


THE   BIG   CUT  89 

As  we  pass  out  onto  the  main  street  of  Culebra  we 
come  into  full  view  of  the  Administration  Building. 
Here  are  the  offices  of  the  Chairman  and  Chief 
Engineer  of  the  Commission. 

Our  special  train  will  now  take  us  down  the  main 
line  past  old  Paraiso,  where  the  Panama  Railroad  re- 
crosses  the  canal.  Looking  south  from  the  bridge 
we  get  a  view  of  the  huge  berm  cranes  spanning  the 
locks  at  Pedro  Miguel.  A  nearer  approach  will  re- 
veal the  fact  that  the  locks  at  this  end  of  the  canal 
practically  duplicate  those  at  Gatun,  except  that  the 
first  flight  is  separated  from  the  second  and  third 
flights,  a  distance  of  two  miles,  by  Miraflores  Lake. 

The  Pedro  Miguel  locks  really  mark  the  foot  of 
Culebra  Cut,  for  from  Pedro  Miguel  to  Miraflores 
comparatively  little  excavation  has  been  necessary. 
The  canal  descends  to  sea  level  at  Miraflores,  and 
most  of  the  excavation  from  here  to  deep  water  in 
the  Pacific  is  below  sea  level.  We  can  take  a  dredge 
from  here  to  La  Boca,  at  the  Pacific  entrance.  There 
is  the  "  Culebra,"  one  of  the  largest  suction  dredges 
in  the  service.  As  it  is  just  now  ready  to  leave  with 
its  great  load  of  mud,  we  will  go  with  it  far  out  into 
the  Pacific.  As  we  pass  out  of  the  Pacific  entrance, 
the  Balboa  docks  will  be  the  first  point  of  interest. 
This  is  the  southern  freight  terminal  of  the  Panama 
Railroad,  which  has  for  more  than  half  a  century 
received  the  commerce  of  the  Pacific,  to  redeposit  it 


90  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

in  the  Atlantic  steamers  at  Colon,  bound  for  eastern 
America  and  Europe.  Our  boat  will  carry  us  near 
Flamenco  Island,  which  is  soon  to  become  the  Gibral- 
tar of  the  New  World.  The  dredge  will  deposit  its 
burden  in  the  deep  waters  of  the  " South  Sea."  To 
our  left  is  Culebra  Island,  where  the  Pacific  quarantine 
station  is  located. 

From  the  vicinity  of  Flamenco  Island  we  may  see 
a  score  of  small  islands  lying  at  the  Pacific  entrance 
of  the  canal.  As  we  again  approach  Balboa  on  our 
return  trip,  we  note  a  flat  looking  boat  at  the  docks 
in  front  of  us.  This  is  a  sand  barge  from  Chame, 
and  the  machinery  which  is  relieving  it  of  its  burden 
is  a  Cleveland  crane  unloader. 

The  drive  from  Balboa  into  Ancon  will  be  an 
interesting  one.  We  come  around  the  north  side  of 
Sosa  Hill  and  into  full  view  of  Mount  Ancon. 
Around  the  foot  of  this  hill  is  one  of  the  prettiest 
drives  one  could  find  anywhere.  The  macadamized 
road,  palms  of  a  hundred  varieties,  mango  trees, 
coconut  trees,  Chinese  gardens,  historic  Ancon  Hill, 
the  blue  Pacific  stretching  away  to  the  horizon,  the 
cool  evening  breezes,  the  quaint  Spanish  suburbs 
of  the  typical  Spanish  city  of  Panama  —  all  combine 
to  make  this  three-mile  drive  a  most  pleasant  and 
interesting  one;  and  when  you  arrive  at  Ancon, 
you  will  be  prepared  to  do  justice  to  the  sumptuous 
dinner  provided  for  you  at  the  Tivoli  Hotel. 


THE   BIG  CUT  93 

Standing  on  an  eminence  above  the  city  of  Panama 
the  Tivoli  Hotel  commands  a  magnificent  view  of  the 
mountains  to  the  northeast.  We  are,  indeed,  in  a 
land  of  countless  manifestations  of  nature's  power 
and  diversity  —  a  land  where  history  lends  its  in- 
terest to  every  hilltop,  and  romance  its  charm  to 
every  valley.  Away  to  the  east,  on,  on,  on,  and  out 
of  sight,  stretches  the  Pacific  like  a  sea  of  glass, 
guarded  on  the  left  by  the  blue  ranges  that  the  buc- 
caneers of  centuries  ago  scaled  hi  their  search  of 
wealth;  that  Balboa  climbed  in  quest  of  the  South 
Sea  and  eternal  fame ;  that  Pizarro  crossed  in  his 
march  toward  the  land  of  the  Incas.  In  the  midst 
of  your  reverie  you  are  awakened  by  the  sudden 
lighting  up  of  the  whole  sky.  The  green  of  the  near- 
by hills  and  the  blue  of  the  distant  mountains  are 
slowly  transformed,  now  into  purple,  now  into  violet, 
and  then  finally  into  an  almost  invisible  gray. 
When  at  last  you  turn  your  eyes  in  the  direction  of 
the  source  of  all  this  splendor,  you  behold  a  sunset 
so  splendid  as  to  make  one  feel  that  nature  herself, 
despairing  of  words,  is  giving  utterance  to  her 
emotions  in  this  wild,  inarticulate  harmony  of  colors. 
Resting  upon  the  hills  that  border  the  Pacific  to  the 
west  is  a  great  billowy  cloud  fringed  at  its  lower  edge 
with  a  brilliant  crimson,  and  undulating  into  myriad 
flames  of  scarlet,  orange  and  gold.  Above  the  cloud 
for  some  distance  is  clear  sky  —  not  blue,  but  liquid 


94  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

emerald ;  then  again  there  are  light  fleecy  clouds  of 
delicate  pink,  imperceptibly  fading  as  they  recede 
toward  the  darkness.  At  last  the  landscape  sinks 
back  into  night's  embrace.  After  a  day's  strenuous 
observation  you  have  probably  dismissed  from  your 
mind  the  idea  that  the  canal  diggers  are  outside  the 
pale  of  civilization. 

Our  imaginary  trip  has  taken  us  across  the  Isthmus 
at  the  most  interesting  stage  of  the  work.  But  re- 
member that  it  is  all  a  dream,  for  things  happen  so 
fast  in  the  Canal  Zone  that  what  is  news  to-day  is 
history  to-morrow.  Some  of  the  ground  we  have 
covered  is  now  under  the  waters  of  Gatun  Lake. 


CHAPTER  VI 

ORGANIZATION 

To  the  tourist  crossing  the  Isthmus  one  thing  is 
everywhere  in  evidence  —  effective  organization.  As 
David  Starr  Jordan  says,  "The  world  stands  aside  to 
let  the  man  pass  who  knows  where  he  is  going."  The 
men  here  know  both  where  they  are  going  and  when 
they  will  arrive.  Never  before  have  so  many  ex- 
perts been  called  together  on  one  piece  of  work. 
The  Panama  Canal  will  stand  as  the  product  of 
American  genius  and  as  a  monument  to  thousands 
of  intelligent  Americans  who  knew  their  business. 

Mention  has  been  made  of  the  treaty  under  which 
the  United  States  acquired  control  of  the  territory 
known  as  the  Canal  Zone.  The  necessity  for  such 
an  arrangement  was  obvious.  All  obstacles  which 
might  be  put  in  the  way  of  the  construction  work 
and  the  general  administration  of  affairs  were  wisely 
anticipated  by  the  provision  giving  the  United 
States  government  absolute  jurisdiction  over  a 
strip  of  territory  extending  five  miles  on  either  side 
of  the  line  of  the  canal,  and  the  right  to  the  use  of 
any  territory  adjacent  thereto  which  might  be  made 

97 


98  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

to  contribute  to  the  construction  and  operation  of 
the  canal.  In  other  words,  it  was  intended  that 
there  should  be  nothing  to  do  but  to  "go  ahead" 
when  the  Commission  began  the  work  of  actual 
digging. 

While  some  departments  have  been  absorbed  by 
others,  and  while  new  departments  have  been  created, 
the  organization  has  not  been  changed  in  any  es- 
sential feature  since  the  beginning  of  the  under- 
taking, though  the  same  cannot  be  said  of  the  per- 
sonnel. In  1904  the  Commission  was  organized 
under  the  Department  of  War  of  the  United  States 
and  has  continued  its  operations  under  that  depart- 
ment. The  diagram  opposite  will  indicate  the  gen- 
eral plan  of  organization. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  Panama  Railroad  is  not 
included  in  this  diagram.  The  omission  is  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  railroad,  though  owned  by  the  gov- 
ernment, is  operated  as  a  private  corporation ;  such 
an  arrangement  permits  the  company  to  sue  and  to 
be  sued,  and  to  continue  the  passenger  and  freight 
traffic  which  it  has  built  up.  Any  arrangement  which 
resulted  in  discontinuing  this  traffic  would  have  been 
a  serious  menace  to  the  commerce  which  has  taken 
this  route  for  a  half  century.  Besides  this  advan- 
tage to  those  interested  in  transisthmian  commerce, 
the  company  has  continued  to  earn  a  large  dividend 
for  the  government. 


ORGANIZATION 


99 


For  some  time  prior  to  1904  the  road  was  handling, 
annually,  traffic  averaging  nearly   20,000,000   ton- 


Lnjin««r 

STHMtAN  CANAL  COMMISSION 
CoLGtO.W.GOCTHA 


Oilburiinf 
Offittr 

C  J.  WILLIAMS 

fffrtm^     »r 

Construction    A    Cnginitnng 

Cot.  GCO.  W.  GOCTHALS 

Cft.tf  Cflf>»W 

ORGANIZATION    CHART 

H 
I$T  H  MIAN  CANAL 


miles.    The  additions  incident  to  the  Commission's 
work   increased   the   amount   to   280,000,000   ton- 


100  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

miles.  Such  an  enormous  increase  necessitated 
much  reconstruction.  As  the  road  followed  the  line 
of  the  canal,  practically  all  of  the  roadbed  from 
Gatun  to  Bas  Obispo  would  be  submerged  on  the 
completion  of  the  dam,  and  the  relocation  of  many 
other  miles  of  the  road  was  necessary.  To  meet 
the  increased  demands  of  transportation  about 
thirty-seven  miles  of  the  road  were  double-tracked ; 
to  get  out  of  Gatun  Lake  and  to  avoid  crossing  the 
canal  another  thirty-seven  miles  of  road  have  been 
relocated.  The  double  tracking  was  accomplished 
early  in  the  history  of  the  work  under  American 
control.  The  relocated  line  was  completed  in  1912 
at  a  cost  of  about  $9,000,000.  The  old  line  from 
Gatun  to  Gorgona,  a  distance  of  twenty  miles,  was 
taken  up  in  the  early  part  of  the  year,  and  its  bed 
will  soon  be  forty  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  now 
fast  rising  Gatun  Lake. 


CHAPTER  VII 

QUARTERMASTER'S  DEPARTMENT 

THE  organization  in  this  department  includes  the 
Chief  Quartermaster,  Assistant  Chief  Quartermaster, 
Depot  Quartermaster,  Constructing  Quartermaster, 
eleven  District  Quartermasters,  six  Storekeepers, 
two  hundred  and  twenty-one  "gold"  employees  and 
over  three  thousand  "silver"  employees.  The  De- 
partment was  organized  in  July,  1908,  by  Colonel 
C.  A.  Devol,  U.S.A.  Its  business  may  be  summarized 
as  follows :  (1)  to  recruit  all  unskilled  labor  for  the 
work ;  (2)  to  assign,  furnish  and  take  charge  of  all 
commission  quarters;  (3)  to  execute  the  orders  of 
the  Sanitary  Department  in  matters  relating  to 
grass  cutting  and  the  removal  of  debris;  (4)  to  con- 
struct and  to  repair  all  Isthmian  Canal  ^Commission 
buildings ;  (5)  to  make  requisition  for  and  to  distrib- 
ute all  supplies  for  the  Commission;  (6)  to  "scrap" 
the  old  French  material ;  and  (7)  to  audit  all  prop- 
erty returns  pertaining  to  the  business  of  the  Com- 
mission. 

Colonel  Devol  says  in  his  annual  report:  "The 
administration  of  the  various  districts  by  District 

101 


102  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

and  Assistant  District  Quartermasters  is  an  evolu- 
tion from  the  administration  of  an  army  post.  In 
each  case  the  Quartermaster  attends  to  all  ma- 
terial wants  of  the  community  except  food  sup- 
plies. Even  these  latter  are  delivered  from  the 
Commissaries  to  the  consumers  by  this  depart- 
ment. Each  district  has  a  small  working  force  of 
artisans,  utility  men,  janitors,  etc.,  to  attend  to 
the  wants  of  the  district,  and  maintains  a  corral 
with  a  sufficient  number  of  animals  and  vehicles 
for  local  needs. " 

The  39,000  employees  of  the  Commission  and  of  the 
Panama  Railroad  are  classified  under  the  two  general 
heads,  "  gold  "  and  "  silver ; "  and  quarters  are  classi- 
fied under  the  same  heads.  Assignments  are  made 
by  the  District  Quartermasters  in  accordance  with 
an  established  code  of  rules,  based  on  the  date  of 
application,  rate  of  salary  and  date  of  entry  into 
the  service.  The  rules  governing  assignments  have 
stood  the  test  of  time,  and  it  is  seldom  that  com- 
plaints go  above  the  Quartermaster  in  charge  of  the 
district. 

The  quarters,  both  for  bachelors  and  for  married 
men,  are  furnished  by  the  Government,  and  fuel, 
light  and  water  are  supplied  without  charge.  These 
allowances  for  the  married  men  and  for  the  bache- 
lors differ  somewhat ;  the  table  on  page  103  gives 
the  monthly  allowances  per  capita. 


QUAETEEMASTEE  S  DEPAETMENT 


103 


From  this  table  it  will  be  observed  that  married 
employees  receive  benefits  beyond  their  stipulated 
salaries  amounting  to  something  like  $40  per 
month,  while  the  benefits  received  by  the  bachelor 
employees  amount  to  about  $14  per  month.  The 
quarters  are  all  provided  with  modern  plumbing 


MONTHLY  ALLOWANCES 

MARRIED  MEN 

BACHELORS 

Fuel    

$3.30 

$0.00 

Light  . 

6.13 

.67 

Water      

1.25 

.26 

Garbage  and  care  of      ....         . 

1  61 

16 

Janitor  service       ......... 

0  00 

1  26 

1.00 

1.00 

Y.M.C.A.  and  Band  

.76 

.76 

7.60 

600 

2000 

6  00 

140.44 

$13.98 

and  with  necessary  furniture.  Assignment  to  married 
quarters  is  graded  as  to  the  class  of  houses  as  follows  : 
Employees  drawing  less  than  $200  a  month  are 
assigned  to  four-family  houses,  known  as  Type 
14 ;  those  drawing  from  $200  to  $300  a  month, 
to  cottages  known  as  Types  15  and  17,  and  to 
two-family  houses  known  as  Type  19 ;  those  draw- 
ing between  $300  and  $400  to  two-story  one-family 
houses  known  as  Type  10 ;  from  $400  up,  assign- 
ments are  made  to  official  class  houses,  of  which 
there  are  several  types. 


104  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

"Silver"  bachelor  employees  are  housed  in  bar- 
racks, each  accommodating  seventy-two  men.  The 
barrack  system  is  modeled  directly  after  the  United 
States  Army  transport  plan.  The  barracks  are 
equipped  with  bunks  of  the  triple  standee  type, 
fitted  with  laced  bunk  bottoms.  The  barracks  are 
in  charge  of  janitors,  who  clean  them  each  day. 
The  trunks  and  the  effects  of  the  laborers  are  kept 
on  broad  shelves,  no  bundles  or  baggage  of  any  kind 
being  permitted  on  the  floors.  The  floors  are 
thoroughly  scrubbed  twice  each  week,  and  once 
every  twenty  days  all  bunk  bottoms  are  taken  out 
and  boiled. 

As  stated  elsewhere,  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  clubhouses  are  maintained  in  the  large 
towns  along  the  line  of  the  work.  There  are  seven 
of  these  buildings,  located  at  Cristobal,  Gatun, 
Gorgona,  Empire,  Culebra,  Corozal  and  Porto  Bello. 
In  them  employees  are  given  additional  facilities  for 
social,  church  and  lodge  functions. 

The  ornamentation  of  the  grounds  about  "gold" 
quarters  and  about  the  public  buildings  is  carried  on 
systematically  by  gardeners  under  the  District  Quar- 
termasters. A  propagating  garden  is  maintained  at 
Empire,  from  which  plants  are  distributed.  The 
Quartermaster's  Department  provides,  free  of  charge, 
to  all  "gold"  employees,  such  plants  as  they  desire 
for  ornamenting  the  premises  about  their  quarters. 


I.     SLEEPING    QUARTERS   FOR   NEGROES  (105) 

II.    LABOR   QUARTERS 


I.     A   BEDROOM   IN   FAMILY   QUARTERS 
II.    T.  M.  C.  A.   CLUBHOUSE 


(106) 


QUARTERMASTER'S  DEPARTMENT  107 

As  plants  grow  luxuriantly  in  the  tropics,  most  of 
the  yards  about  the  quarters  present  an  appearance 
which  would  be  the  envy  of  any  professional  horti- 
culturist in  the  United  States.  There  are  few  houses 
that  are  not  surrounded  with  a  luxuriant  growth  of 
flowers,  shrubs  and  vines.  Indeed,  the  employees, 
bachelor  and  married,  are  provided  with  quarters 
which  often  exceed  in  furnishings,  both  inside  and 
out,  those  to  which  they  were  accustomed  before 
coming  to  the  Isthmus. 

The  Building  and  Construction  Division  is  organ- 
ized with  a  small  force  in  each  district.  In  addition 
to  these  forces  there  are  what  are  known  as  traveling 
gangs  —  four  carpenter  gangs  and  three  painting 
gangs.  It  is  the  business  of  these  men,  together 
with  those  employed  in  each  district,  to  construct 
all  new  buildings  not  built  under  contract  and  to 
maintain  the  three  thousand  buildings  in  the  Canal 
Zone.  The  buildings  already  constructed  have  cost 
about  eleven  million  dollars,  their  upkeep  averaging 
a  yearly  outlay  of  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  which  is  about  two  and  one  half 
per  cent  of  their  valuation. 

The  materials  and  supplies  for  the  work  on  the 
canal  requisitioned  through  the  Quartermaster's 
Department  amount  to  about  eleven  million  dol- 
lars annually,  while  the  stock  on  hand  at  all  the 
storehouses  is  estimated  to  be  worth  nearly  five 


108  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

million  dollars.  When  it  is  remembered  that  this 
material  has  to  be  carried  by  ship  for  a  distance  of 
two  thousand  miles  and  that  the  stock  includes 
railway  supplies,  steam  shovel  supplies,  and  all  the 
diversified  handling  plants,  this  amount  does  not 
seem  excessive.  The  price  book  published  by  the 
department  itemizes  more  than  twenty  thousand 
articles,  and  it  is  required  of  the  department  that 
it  meet  every  emergency.  Quite  a  complicated 
business,  this ! 

All  purchases  and  contracts  for  supplies  must  be 
advertised  in  sufficient  tune  to  admit  of  fair  com- 
petition. It  is,  therefore,  necessary  to  allow  for 
at  least  a  three  months'  interval  between  the  making 
of  a  requisition  and  the  receipt  of  the  supplies,  ex- 
cept hi  emergency  cases,  when  the  law  permits  pur- 
chase in  open  market. 

The  storehouse  system  begins  at  Mount  Hope, 
the  storehouse  there  being  known  as  the  Quarter- 
master's Depot.  The  accountability  for  all  prop- 
erty is  initiated  at  Mount  Hope,  where  the  United 
States  bills  are  certified  and  the  supplies  become 
government  property.  From  Mount  Hope  to  the 
line  storehouses  the  material  is  handled  by  a  system 
of  invoices  and  receipts.  Each  article  of  govern- 
ment property  is  carried  on  a  physical  accountability 
system.  Returns  are  rendered  to  the  Chief  Quarter- 
master every  six  months ;  the  audit  of  these  returns 


QUARTERMASTER'S  DEPARTMENT  109 

by  cross  check  from  the  return  of  one  storehouse  to 
that  of  another  storehouse  constitutes  a  debit  and 
credit  material  account  for  all  officers  carrying  prop- 
erty responsibility. 

The  " scrapping"  of  French  material  by  the  Quar- 
termaster's Department  consists  of  the  disposal  of 
some  one  hundred  thousand  tons  of  old  French  junk. 
About  two  thousand  tons  are  sent  each  month  to 
the  United  States  on  the  cement  ships  Ancon  and 
Cristobal,  thus  giving  these  boats  a  ballasting  cargo 
when  north  bound. 

The  Department  has  in  its  service  about  six  hun- 
dred mules  and  horses,  distributed  among  the  corrals 
of  the  different  districts.  This  provides  for  all  team 
service  on  the  Canal  Zone,  teams  and  drivers  being 
furnished  to  the  Construction  and  other  Divisions 
for  $3.50  a  day. 

It  may  be  stated,  in  conclusion,  that  the  Quar- 
termaster's Department  on  the  Isthmus  is  to  the 
Canal  Zone  work  what  the  Quartermaster's  Depart- 
ment hi  the  United  States  is  to  the  Army,  both  in  the 
United  States  and  in  its  island  possessions,  except 
that  the  Quartermaster's  Department  on  the  Isth- 
mus has  a  cost-keeping  system,  and  the  provi- 
sion and  maintenance  of  a  construction  plant,  and 
the  supply  of  material,  which  does  not  pertain  to 
army  administration.  In  a  word,  the  system  is 
a  combination  of  army  and  railroad  practice, 


110  THE   STOEY  OF   PANAMA 

with  the  best  and  most  applicable  features  in  each 
retained. 

Under  this  system,  material  matters  pertaining 
to  an  annual  appropriation  of  more  than  forty 
million  dollars  are  successfully  taken  care  of,  and 
more  than  thirty-nine  thousand  employees  of  more 
than  thirty  distinct  nationalities  and  races  are 
housed  and  made  contented  and  comfortable.  The 
work  of  the  Quartermaster's  Department  is  as 
efficient  as  it  is  important  and  complicated. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

SANITATION 

ONE  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  failure  of  the  French 
in  their  canal  project  was  inadequate  sanitation. 
The  chief  diseases  with  which  the  French  had  to 
contend  were  malaria,  yellow  fever  and  smallpox. 
In  those  days  the  cities  of  Colon  and  Panama  were 
breeding  places  for  these  and  for  other  diseases. 
The  streets  and  the  sidewalks  were  not  paved,  and 
during  the  " rainy  season,"  which  lasts  for  nine 
months  in  the  year,  they  were  practically  impassable. 
Add  to  these  conditions  the  absence  of  electric  lights 
and  of  plumbing,  and  you  may  have  some  apprecia- 
tion of  conditions  in  Panama  and  Colon  as  they  were 
before  American  occupation.  The  first  work  of  the 
United  States  was  to  clean  up  these  towns.  Wisely 
enough  our  government  had  anticipated  this  necessity 
in  the  treaty  of  1904,  by  which  we  were  given  sani- 
tary jurisdiction  over  the  two  terminal  cities. 

The  Department  of  Sanitation  immediately  set 
to  work,  with  results  which  seem  miraculous.  To- 
day, driving  leisurely  down  Central  Avenue,  Panama, 
one  almost  refuses  to  believe  that  a  decade  ago  in  place 

ill 


112  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

of  the  paved  streets  there  was  a  mass  of  mud  and 
filth  for  nine  months  of  the  year,  impassable  except 
on  foot,  and  then  only  at  the  risk  of  besmirching 
one's  self  with  filth  thrown  from  the  upper  stories 
of  the  buildings  adjacent  to  the  street.  One  sees 
now  what  would  be  seen  in  any  up-to-date  city  in 
the  United  States  —  electric  lights,  clean  streets 
paved  with  vitrified  brick,  a  water  and  a  sewerage 
system  and  every  modern  urban  convenience. 
These  improvements,  with  the  exception  of  the 
electric  lights,  were  all  made  and  paid  for  by  the 
United  States  at  a  cost  of  about  $3,000,000,  under  the 
agreement  that  Panama  and  Colon  should  refund 
the  original  cost  by  means  of  water  rentals.  The 
water  and  sewerage  systems  are  maintained  and 
operated  by  the  Division  of  Public  Works,  a  subor- 
dinate branch  of  the  Canal  Zone  Department  of 
Civil  Administration.  The  cities  of  Panama  and 
Colon  have  been  given  fifty  years  in  which  to  liqui- 
date this  obligation.  Without  fear  one  may  to-day 
quench  his  thirst  at  any  hydrant  in  either  city,  for 
the  crystal  lakes  which  furnish  the  water  supply 
are  far  away  in  the  mountains,  out  of  the  reach  of 
contagion. 

The  Canal  Zone  Sanitary  Department  has  abso- 
lute authority  in  directing  sanitary  activities  in 
the  two  cities.  A  Health  Officer  is  appointed  for 
each  of  the  cities,  whose  business  it  is  to  enforce 


114  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

cleanliness  and  all  sanitary  measures  which  the  head 
of  the  department  may  see  fit  to  promulgate. 

The  work  of  cleaning  up  the  cities  was  not  all  that 
had  to  be  done.  Doctor  Gorgas,  Chief  Sanitary 
Officer,  had  discovered  in  Cuba,  where  he  had  learned 
to  "sanitate,"  that  cleanliness  seemed  to  have  little 
relationship  to  malaria  and  yellow  fever,  two  of  the 
deadliest  enemies  to  the  workmen  in  Panama. 
Vaccination  would  rid  the  country  of  smallpox ;  the 
destruction  of  rats  minimized  the  possibilities  of  an 
attack  of  the  plague;  but  clean  up  Havana  as  he 
would,  malaria  and  yellow  fever  persisted.  In  fact, 
as  Doctor  Gorgas  puts  it,  the  cleaner  he  got  the  city, 
the  greater  the  spread  of  the  infection,  "  until  it  was 
discovered  by  Doctors  Finley  and  Ross  that  there 
were  two  kinds  of  mosquitoes  responsible  for  the 
transmission  of  these  maladies"  —  the  Stegomyia 
and  the  Anopheles,  carriers,  respectively,  of  yellow 
fever  and  of  malaria. 

Now  it  happens  that  the  Stegomyia  is  quite  domes- 
tic in  its  habits,  and  is  never  found  far  distant  from 
man's  habitation.  It  may  be  said  that  the  little 
fellow  is  perfectly  harmless  so  long  as  there  are  no 
cases  of  yellow  fever  in  the  community.  It  is 
merely  a  carrier,  and  its  bite  is  as  harmless  as  that 
of  any  mosquito  until  ten  or  twelve  days  have  elapsed 
after  it  has  bitten  an  infected  person.  By  this  time 
it  has  contracted  the  disease  itself  and  is  capable 


SANITATION  115 

of  communicating  it.  Nor  is  there  danger  of  con- 
tagion from  yellow  fever  by  contact.  One  may 
safely  sleep  in  a  room  with  a  yellow  fever  patient, 
provided  there  are  no  Stegomyias  present.  The 
three  necessary  conditions  for  infection  are:  (1)  the 
presence  of  an  infected  human  being;  (2)  the  pres- 
ence of  the  female  Stegomyia ;  (3)  the  biting  of  the 
infected  person,  and  the  biting  of  a  second  person 
by  the  same  mosquito,  ten  or  twelve  days  later.  In 
the  absence  of  any  one  of  these  conditions,  the  trans- 
mission of  yellow  fever  is  impossible. 

The  work  of  sanitation  on  the  Isthmus  began  in 
the  early  part  of  the  year  1904.  The  French  had 
been  powerless  to  cope  with  the  situation,  especially 
as  in  their  day  the  mode  of  transmission  of  yellow 
fever  and  malaria  had  not  been  discovered.  The 
mosquito  invaded  the  homes  of  the  high  and  the 
low  alike.  The  French  had  unwittingly  furnished 
the  Stegomyia  with  ideal  breeding  places,  construct- 
ing for  it  elaborate  homes  in  the  way  of  concrete 
pools  which  were  intended  as  reservoirs  for  decorative 
plants,  but  which  were  appropriated  by  the  enter- 
prising little  insect  as  a  place  most  fitting  for  propa- 
gation. From  these  aristocratic  quarters  it  went 
forth  at  night  on  its  deadly  errand,  and  ere  the  light 
of  the  next  day  drove  it  again  to  its  hiding  place  its 
homicidal  work  was  accomplished. 

The  swamps,  cesspools,  and  sluggish  streams  near 


116  THE   STORY  OF   PANAMA 

the  quartering  places  were  given  no  attention  by  the 
French,  and  these  furnished  natural  breeding  places 
for  the  Anopheles,  the  carrier  of  malaria. 

Obviously,  the  first  work  of  the  Department  of 
Sanitation  was  to  take  measures  against  these 
formidable  foes.  So  rain  barrels,  cisterns  and  all 
water  containers  were  made  mosquito  proof  with 
wire  screening,  cesspools  were  either  drained  or 
oiled,  and  the  jungles  near  the  thickly  populated 
places  were  cleared  to  expose  the  hidden  breeding 
places  of  the  mosquito.  All  patients  suspected  of 
yellow  fever  infection  were  removed  to  the  fever 
wards,  which  were  carefully  screened.  As  a  further 
precaution  against  infection  within  the  wards  them- 
selves, each  patient  was  in  turn  screened  in,  so  that 
the  yellow  fever  ward  appeared  more  like  a  menagerie 
of  caged  human  beings  than  a  place  of  human  habita- 
tion. The  homes  from  which  such  patients  were 
taken  were  always  fumigated.  A  little  later  the 
plan  of  screening  all  Commission  houses  was  carried 
into  effect.  The  result  of  all  these  curative  and  pre- 
ventive measures  was  the  extermination  of  yellow 
fever,  the  last  case  of  infection  on  the  Isthmus  occur- 
ring in  September,  1905. 

Fortunately  the  Stegomyia's  travels  are  very 
limited.  In  a  lifetime  it  seldom  journeys  more  than 
one  hundred  yards.  It  breeds  in  fresh,  clear  water, 
rather  than  in  cesspools,  and  is  never  found  in  moving 


SANITATION  117 

streams.  But  wherever  it  finds  the  least  bit  of  water 
to  "its  liking,  there  it  takes  up  its  abode.  Mr. 
Le  Prince,  Chief  Sanitary  Inspector,  says:  "We 
have  even  found  the  larvae  in  water  tanks  on  loco- 
motives, and  in  depressions  in  castings  or  parts  of 
cars  used  for  the  transportation  of  rock  and  dirt. 
The  adults  are  apt  to  collect  where  water  or  damp- 
ness is  present,  and  have  been  found  in  bathrooms." 
It  is  easy  to  see  how  eternal  vigilance  is  the  price 
for  the  extermination  of  so  persistent  an  enemy. 
In  the  instructions  to  sanitary  inspectors  occurs 
this  paragraph,  which  describes  the  Stegomyia:  — 

"The  lyre-shaped  mark  on  the  back  is  clearly 
shown,  and  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  no  other 
mosquito  has  these  marks  nor  any  resembling  them, 
even  though  you  may  find  pale  marks  on  a  dark 
ground.  A  few  Stegomyia  have  the  ground  color 
pale,  even  light  brownish,  but  the  lyre  is  there. 
White  banded  legs  and  transverse  bars  on  the  abdo- 
men have  no  significance  if  the  lyre-shaped  mark  is 
absent." 

After  yellow  fever,  malaria  has  been  the  most 
dreaded  of  tropical  maladies,  not  so  much  for  its 
fatality  as  for  its  persistent  prevalence,  and  because 
of  its  serious  obstruction  to  work.  Much  the  same 
preventive  measures  were  adopted  in  the  case  of 
the  malaria-carrying  Anopheles  as  in  that  of  the 
Stegomyia.  Drainage,  oiling,  cutting  of  grass  and 


118  THE   STOKY   OF   PANAMA 

clearing  of  jungle  growth  have  been  the  chief  pre- 
ventives. The  effectiveness  with  which  the  Sani- 
tary Department  did  its  work  along  this  line  is 
shown  by  the  table  on  page  121.  | 

But  clean  up  as  much  as  they  would,  it  was  found 
that  people  were  still  taken  ill.  Moreover,  in  the 
canal  work  many  people  were  necessarily  injured. 
So  there  was  need  for  the  splendid  hospital  service 
which  is  maintained  under  the  direction  of  the 
Department  of  Sanitation.  There  are  two  hos- 
pitals, one  at  Colon,  the  other  at  Ancon  —  the  latter 
being  one  of  the  largest  and  best  equipped  in  the 
world.  Here  every  disease  to  which  man  is  heir 
is  skillfully  treated.  There  are  the  operating  wards, 
the  insane  wards,  the  fever  wards,  the  maternity 
ward,  the  tuberculosis  wards,  isolation  wards  and 
so  on.  The  hospital  has  fifty  buildings  in  all,  and 
a  capacity  of  fifteen  hundred  patients.  The  average 
number  treated  annually  since  American  occupa- 
tion has  been  23,600,  or  a  total  of  more  than  188,000 
patients. 

The  organization  of  the  Sanitary  Department  is 
much  like  that  of  an  army.  The  Zone  was  divided 
into  districts,  each  with  its  district  inspector  and 
district  physician.  Through  these  lieutenants  the 
war  against  disease  has  continued  for  eight  years, 
with  such  results  as  the  world  knows.  Every  village 
and  city  of  the  Canal  Zone  has  its  district  physician 


I.     ENTRANCE   TO    ANCON    HOSPITAL   GROUNDS      (120) 
II.    I.  C.  C.    SANITARIUM   AT   TABOGA 


1 

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THOP<NCQOCOiO»-lCO 
iO     ?D     ^     CO 


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5  2  §5 


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122  THE   STOEY  OF  PANAMA 

and  dispensary.  People  with  minor  maladies  are 
treated  by  these  local  physicians  and  are  sent  to 
the  hospitals  only  when,  in  the  opinion  of  such 
physicians,  the  condition  of  the  patient  requires 
hospital  treatment.  All  this  service  is  furnished 
free  to  employees,  and  at  a  nominal  cost  to  their 
families. ' 

A  necessary  adjunct  to  the  hospital  is  the  sani- 
tarium at  Taboga,  where  convalescents  go  for  rest 
and  recuperation.  Taboga  is  one  of  the  most  health- 
ful places  in  the  world. 

To  the  west  of  Taboga  may  be  seen  the  leper 
colony  of  Palo  Seco.  There  are  usually  about  half 
a  hundred  patients  in  this  dread  place.  On  one 
occasion  the  superintendent  of  this  hospital  visited 
the  office  of  the  Superintendent  of  Schools  in  behalf 
of  a  little  twelve-year-old  boy  on  whom  the  gates 
of  Palo  Seco  had  closed.  A  pathetic  errand,  indeed, 
for  he  eame  with  a  message  that  the  little  fellow 
wanted  some  books  to  read.  In  his  caged  up  con- 
dition it  was  thought  the  boy  might  like  some  ele- 
mentary books  on  geography  and  history.  These 
with  others  were  sent  to  him.  A  few  weeks  later 
the  hospital  superintendent  again  returned  on  behalf 
of  the  little  fellow,  who  wanted  to  know  if  he  could 
have  more  books  when  he  had  read  those  sent  him. 
Of  course  he  could  have  all  the  books  he  wanted; 
but  when  the  hospital  superintendent  again  returned, 


SANITATION  123 

he  brought  the  message  that  the  little  soul  had,  after 
a  brave  but  hopeless  fight,  succumbed  to  the  terrible 
scourge.  Though  the  shadows  of  darkness  gathered 
fast  about  this  little  man,  he  had  yet  felt  the  impulse 
for  light  and  struggled  upward. 


CHAPTER  IX 

SUBSISTENCE  DEPARTMENT 

IF  the  Sanitary  and  the  Quartermaster's  Depart- 
ments are  essential  and  basal,  no  less  may  be  said 
of  the  Subsistence  Department.  For  if  good  men 
and  true  —  men  expert  in  their  respective  lines  — 
were  to  be  secured  and  held  permanently,  they  must 
be  guaranteed  not  only  sanitary  conditions  and  ade- 
quate living  facilities,  but  also  first-class  food  sup- 
plies. 

As  early  as  1905  it  became  apparent  that  the  food 
products  of  Panama  would  be  inadequate  to  meet  the 
demands  of  Americans  entering  the  canal  service. 
The  food  supply  was  scant  and  prices  were  exorbi- 
tant, but  it  was  not  until  the  middle  of  the  year 
1906  that  any  well  directed  effort  was  made  to  re- 
lieve the  situation.  During  this  year,  however, 
hotels  and  messes  were  established  in  all  the  larger 
communities  along  the  line  of  the  canal.  At  the 
close  of  the  year  there  were  fourteen  such  conven- 
iences. At  first  the  Commission  was  undecided 
whether  to  handle  subsistence  direct,  or  by  contract ; 
but  by  the  end  of  the  year  the  plan  of  direct  handling 

124 


SUBSISTENCE   DEPARTMENT  125 

had  demonstrated  its  wisdom,  and  the  government 
decided  to  establish  a  Department  of  Subsistence 
in  connection  with  the  Commissary  Department 
of  the  Panama  Railroad. 

At  present  this  department  handles  everything 
that  pertains  to  the  feeding  and  clothing  of  the  em- 
ployees of  the  Commission.  In  his  report  for  the 
year  1910,  Major  Wilson  classifies  the  work  of 
subsistence  under  four  general  heads:  (1)  Pur- 
chase and  shipping ;  (2)  Receiving  and  distribution ; 
(3)  Method  of  selling  to  employees;  (4)  Manu- 
facturing. 

All  material  handled  by  the  department  is  pur- 
chased on  contract  through  purchasing  officers 
stationed  in  the  cities  of  New  York,  New  Orleans 
and  San  Francisco,  and  through  agents  abroad.  The 
needs  of  the  department  are  figured  out  some  two 
months  ahead  of  the  actual  demand,  so  that  the  pur- 
chasing agents  may  have  ample  time  to  advertise 
for  bids.  By  this  plan  there  is  opportunity  for  com- 
petition, and  competition  which  is  both  honest  and 
sharp,  as  the  prices  of  staples  will  indicate.  All 
shipments  from  San  Francisco  are  made  by  water. 
Very  large  requisitions  have  made  competition  so 
sharp  that  California  food  products  may  be  obtained 
by  the  consumer  on  the  Isthmus  at  as  low  a  figure 
as  the  same  may  be  purchased  under  the  very  shadow 
of  the  Calif  ornian's  "own  vine  and  fig  tree!"  The 


126  THE    STORY   OF  PANAMA 

fact  is  that  the  employee  on  the  Zone  has  access  to 
a  grocery  as  well  stocked  and  up-to-date  as  those 
open  to  any  citizen  of  Chicago.  He  gets  straw- 
berries, raspberries,  blackberries,  apples,  grapes,  pears, 
peaches,  new  potatoes  —  everything  in  season ;  and 
it  is  all  good,  for  it  has  back  of  it  a  bonded  guarantee 
which  the  United  States  will  enforce  even  to  the 
quality  of  a  quart  of  strawberries. 

The  meats  furnished  are  not  inferior  in  quality 
nor  higher  in  price  than  are  those  sold  on  the  Chicago 
market.  Of  course,  the  meats  are  all  from  cold 
storage,  but  they  are  in  every  way  as  palatable  as 
those  that  may  be  bought  direct  from  the  best  re- 
tailers in  the  city  meat  markets  of  the  United  States. 
Meats  sent  from  Chicago  come  the  entire  three 
thousand  miles  in  a  temperature  considerably  below 
freezing,  and  are  put  into  the  consumer's  hands  in 
even  better  condition  for  consumption  than  when 
they  enter  storage  in  that  city. 

A  typical  Isthmian  dinner  would  consist  of  an 
A-grade  porterhouse  steak,  potatoes,  fresh  country 
butter,  homemade  or  fresh  baker's  bread,  lettuce 
salad,  peaches,  cake  and  ice  cream ;  or  any  modifi- 
cation of  this  bill  of  fare  which  the  most  culti- 
vated taste  of  a  northerner  could  devise  or  his 
purse  afford. 

Below  is  given  a  table  which  will  indicate  the  culi- 
nary possibilities  placed  at  the  disposal  of  those 


SUBSISTENCE  DEPARTMENT  127 

employed  on  the  Isthmus,  together  with  the  aggre- 
gate quantities  of  food  used  during  the  year  1910. 


TABLE   SUPPLIES 

POUNDS 

Peas  and  Beans  (bulk) 1,128,792 

Cocoa 109,504 

Sugar 3,612,768 

Tea 80,965 

Baking  Powders 39,922 

Salmon 162,960 

Preserved  Fruit 766,623 

Jams,  Jellies,  etc 195,199 

Meats  (canned) 675,852 

Milk  (evaporated  and  condensed)      ....  2,221,032 

Tomatoes  (in  tins) 677,278 

Pork  and  Beans  (in  tins) 77,278 

Peas  and  Beans  (in  tins) 471,452 

Other  Vegetables  (in  tins) 524,069 

Pickles  and  Sauces 169,460 

Codfish 597,516 

Pickled  Fish 27,250 

Flour 5,363,574 

Rice 1,629,558 

Cereals  not  otherwise  specified 412,429 

Biscuits 364,982 

Confectionery 188,319 

Lard 420,110 

Fresh  Meats 5,229,306 

Cured  and  Pickled  Meats 1,046,029 

Cheese 114,192 

Eggs dozen  502,950 

Butter 471,551 

Poultry 429,575 


128  THE   STORY  OF   PANAMA 

Fresh  Milk gallons  41,901 

Fresh  Cream gallons  22,900 

Potatoes  (Irish) .  4,586,967 

Potatoes  (sweet) 638,584 

Onions 717,557 

Turnips 122,632 

Beets 22,059 

Carrots 91,830 

Cabbage 656,905 

Yams 424,789 

Other  Vegetables 622,484 

Apples,  Peaches,  Pears 602,196 

Plums,  Grapes 71,772 

Lemons,  Grapefruit,  Limes  ....  dozen  267,758 
Cantaloupes  and  Watermelons  .  .  .  pieces  70,569 
Other  Fruits 26,276 


This  bill  of  goods,  taken  from  the  annual  report 
of  the  head  of  the  department,  would  indicate  that 
there  are  many  mouths  to  feed,  and  that  the  United 
States  has  not  only  a  good  sized  store,  but  that  it  is 
well  stocked.  The  annual  sales  aggregate  in  value 
five  and  one  third  million  dollars. 

There  is  the  same  satisfactory  service  in  the  matter 
of  clothing.  All  the  wearing  apparel  required  may 
be  purchased  at  the  local  commissaries.  Ready- 
made  clothing,  hats,  ties,  shirts,  collars,  shoes,  boots, 
dress  patterns,  laces,  silks,  serges,  worsteds  —  every- 
thing that  a  man  or  a  woman  can  buy  in  the  best 
department  stores  of  the  larger  cities  of  the  United 
States  —  can  be  purchased,  the  only  difference  being 


SUBSISTENCE   DEPARTMENT  131 

in  the  lower  prices  paid  on  the  Zone  for  articles 
of  like  quality. 

All  goods  are  held  in  the  wholesale  department  at 
Cristobal  till  demand  is  made  by  the  division  store- 
houses along  the  line  of  the  canal.  Something  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  business  done  by  this  depart- 
ment may  be  appreciated  when  it  is  stated  that  a 
train  of  twenty-one  cars  leaves  Cristobal  daily  to 
distribute  goods  to  the  various  branch  commissaries 
on  the  Zone.  These  goods  are  received  by  the  local 
commissaries,  which  in  turn  distribute  them  to  the 
consumers  by  means  of  delivery  wagons. 

All  purchases  are  made  with  commissary  coupon 
books.  These  books  are  issued  to  employees  by 
the  various  departments,  the  amounts  they  represent 
being  deducted  from  the  monthly  salary  of  the  re- 
cipient. Money  will  not  be  received  in  payment 
for  goods  purchased.  Such  a  plan  prevents  the 
purchase  of  goods  by  non-employees,  an  arrange- 
ment which  is  necessary  in  order  to  carry  out  the 
spirit  of  the  clause  in  the  treaty  with  Panama  about 
protecting  her  merchants  against  competition  with 
government  prices. 


CHAPTER  X 

DEPARTMENT  OF  CIVIL  ADMINISTRATION 

NOTHING  illustrates  better  the  policy  of  the 
United  States  government  in  this  great  undertaking 
than  does  the  organization  of  the  Civil  Department. 
At  its  opening  meeting  the  Isthmian  Canal  Com- 
mission declared  the  building  of  the  canal  to  be  a 
purely  industrial  proposition,  and  to  this  day  there 
has  been  no  deviation  from  the  policy  implied  in 
that  statement.  That  this  industrial  proposition 
might  be  met  and  solved  satisfactorily,  it  must  have 
a  social  basis.  Desirable  workmen  would  not  be 
attracted  to  a  society  where  there  were  none  of 
those  amenities  which  they  enjoyed  in  then:  native 
land. 

It  was  no  philanthropic  motive  which  actuated 
the  men  in  charge  to  establish  hospitals,  churches, 
comfortable  quarters,  clubhouses  and  schools,  and 
to  provide  for  the  administration  of  Civil  Law.  The 
expenditure  of  a  half  billion  dollars  by  the  United 
States  government  was  a  cold  business  proposition. 
To  be  sure,  the  men  in  charge  are  happier  when  those 
working  with  them  are  happy,  but  individual  interests 

132 


DEPARTMENT  OF   CIVIL  ADMINISTRATION        133 

can  have  no  part  in  the  administration  of  so  great  a 
work  except  as  individual  interests  conduce  and  con- 
tribute to  the  effectiveness  and  expedition  of  the  work 
to  be  accomplished. 

The  casual  observer  is  apt  to  become  so  absorbed 
in  the  spectacular  feats  of  the  engineers  as  to  be 
altogether  oblivious  to  the  no  less  important,  though 
less  evident,  work  of  other  departments.  To  him 
law  and  order,  wholesome  food,  comfortable  quarters 
and  efficient  sanitation  are  matters  of  course.  He 
has  them  at  home,  and  the  very  fact  that  he  is 
comfortable  and  has  a  feeling  of  security  while  on 
the  Canal  Zone  renders  him  oblivious  to  the  basal 
conditions  which  make  possible  the  rapid  material 
progress  everywhere  so  evident,  so  overwhelming. 
If  these  things  were  unsatisfactory,  his  attention 
would,  of  course,  be  forcibly  called  to  them;  since 
they  are  satisfactory,  he  does  not  notice  them.  After 
leaving  the  Isthmus  the  visitor  will  probably  reflect 
that  he  saw  seventy  thousand  people  of  every  race 
and  tongue  behaving  themselves  in  a  manner  not  un- 
like that  of  his  neighbors  at  home;  that  he  saw 
policemen,  dressed  in  neat  brown  khaki  uniforms,  in 
town  and  village,  on  trains  and  at  railroad  stations, 
enforcing  order,  not  with  club  and  pistol,  but  by  their 
dignified  though  unobtrusive  presence;  that  there 
must  be  courts  of  justice  and  the  usual  machinery 
incident  thereto ;  that  there  were  fire  stations  in  each 


134  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

of  the  many  Zone  towns  he  visited ;  that  he  was  told 
of  a  school  system  which  furnished  adequate  facilities 
and  tuition  for  the  education  of  all  children  of  what- 
ever race  and  nationality ;  that  his  mail  was  delivered 
to  him  with  as  much  expedition  and  in  exactly  the 
same  way  as  it  is  delivered  in  the  States ;  that  he 
saw  prisoners  at  work  constructing  macadamized 
roads  for  the  government;  that,  on  the  whole,  he 
found  on  the  Zone  a  most  cosmopolitan  community 
of  Americans,  West  Indians,  East  Indians,  Chinese, 
Japanese,  Spaniards,  Turks,  Syrians,  Englishmen, 
Scotchmen,  Frenchmen,  Germans,  Italians,  Greeks, 
Scandinavians  —  all  moving  in  a  community  where 
American  ideas  prevail  and  where  American  in- 
stitutions obtain ;  and  finally  that  while  on  the  Zone 
he  was  so  absorbed  in  the  spectacular  work  of  canal 
building  that  he  did  not  acquaint  himself  at  all  with 
the  very  essential  work  of  the  Civil  Government 
Department. 

On  April  9, 1904,  Major  General  George  W.  Davis, 
U.S.A.  (Retired),  was  appointed  Governor  of  the 
Canal  Zone  and  directed  by  the  President  to  take 
formal  possession  of  the  Zone  and  the  property  of  the 
United  States  therein  and  in  the  cities  of  Colon  and 
Panama.  A  month  later  General  Davis  arrived  on 
the  Isthmus  and  immediately  issued  a  proclamation 
announcing  in  the  name  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States  the  occupation  of  the  Zone  territory 


DEPARTMENT   OF   CIVIL  ADMINISTRATION        135 

by  the  American  government.  In  evolving  the 
present  plan  of  organization  a  number  of  changes 
were  made.  The  present  Department  of  Civil  Ad- 
ministration dates  from  January,  1908,  from  which 
time  the  department  has  been  directed  by  the  civilian 
members  of  the  Commission,  Jo.  C.  S.  Blackburn 
(1907-1909)  and  his  successor,  M.  H.  Thatcher. 

The  Head  of  the  Department  of  Civil  Adminis- 
tration, in  addition  to  such  duties  as  he  may  be 
required  to  discharge  as  a  member  of  the  Isthmian 
Canal  Commission,  supervises  the  work  of  the  va- 
rious divisions  of  the  department  and  all  expendi- 
tures thereof,  and  represents  the  Commission  and 
the  Canal  Zone  government  hi  theh1  relations  with 
the  Republic  of  Panama  and  with  the  diplomatic 
and  consular  representatives  of  foreign  countries 
accredited  to  Panama. 

The  executive  work  of  the  Department  of  Civil 
Administration  comprehends  the  following  civil 
divisions :  — 

Posts,  Customs  and  Revenues 

Police  and  Prisons 

Fire  Protection 

Public  Works 

Steam  Vessel  Inspection  Service 

Schools 

Treasurer  of  the  Canal  Zone 

Auditor  of  the  Canal  Zone 


136  THE   STORY   OF  PANAMA 

The  Judicial  branch  of  the  Department  of  Civil 
Administration  includes  the  systems  of  Zone  judi- 
ciary; namely,  the  Supreme  Court,  Circuit  Courts 
and  District  Courts. 


Division  of  Posts,  Customs  and  Revenues 

The  Division  of  Posts,  Customs  and  Revenues 
forms  the  Postal,  Customs  and  Internal  Revenue 
Service  of  the  Zone.  It  also  includes  the  collection 
of  rentals  from  public  lands  and  buildings,  and  the 
administration  of  estates.  There  are  in  the  Zone 
sixteen  post  offices.  All  of  these  are  money-order 
offices,  and  at  all  of  them  postal  savings  certificates 
are  issued  and  deposits  are  received. 

Under  what  is  known  as  the  Taft  agreement, 
effective  December  3,  1904,  the  Canal  Zone  govern- 
ment procures  its  postage  stamps  from  the  Pana- 
manian government,  paying  the  latter  forty  per 
cent  of  the  face  value  of  the  stamps.  The  stamps 
are  sold  by  the  Division  of  Posts  at  their  face  value, 
and  there  is  thus  derived  as  net  Zone  postal  revenues 
sixty  per  cent  of  the  amounts  realized  on  such  sales. 
From  this  source  the  two  governments  realize,  re- 
spectively, $48,000  and  $32,000  annually.  The 
total  cost  of  administering  the  postal  work  of  the 
Zone  is  about  $160,000  a  year,  and  the  postal  revenue 
is  about  $100,000  a  year.  Except  for  the  amount 


DEPARTMENT   OF   CIVIL  ADMINISTRATION        137 

paid  the  Republic  of  Panama  for  stamps,  and  the 
fact -that  so  large  a  percentage  of  the  mail  handled 
is  Commission  mail  and  therefore  franked,  the  Zone 
postal  service  would  be  self-sustaining. 

The  Customs  work  of  this  Division  includes  the 
entry  and  clearance  of  ships  at  the  ports  of  Cristobal 
and  Ancon,  the  signing  and  discharging  of  seamen, 
the  enforcement  of  the  collection  of  Panama  tariff 
duties  on  importations  coming  into  Zone  ports,  and 
the  enforcement  of  the  exclusion  laws  against  Chinese 
and  Syrians. 

This  Division  also  makes  assessment  and  collection 
of  taxes  in  the  Zone.  The  tax  scheme  provides  for 
the  collection  of  a  five  per  cent  annual  tax  on  the 
estimated  rental  value  of  lands  and  buildings  held 
by  private  owners,  for  taxes  on  merchandise  stocks, 
on  polls  of  permanent  residents,  and  for  various 
license  taxes.  The  collection  of  rentals  on  lands  or 
buildings  leased  by  the  Commission  is  made  by 
this  division  and  the  rentals  become  a  part  of  Zone 
revenues.  These  revenues  are  applied  to  the  con- 
struction and  maintenance  of  roads  and  other  public 
improvements  in  the  Zone,  to  the  maintenance  of 
schools  and  to  other  local  needs.  The  total  of 
Zone  revenues  has  been  about  $320,000  a  year  ex- 
clusive of  postal  receipts.  The  money-order  sales 
have  been  more  than  five  millions  of  dollars  a  year, 
the  greater  portion  of  which  represents  the  savings 


138  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

of  the  employees  of  the  Commission  and  of  the 
Panama  Railroad. 

The  head  of  this  division  serves  under  the  title 
of  Chief  of  the  Division  of  Posts,  Customs  and  Rev- 
enues. He  is  assisted  in  the  work  of  the  Division 
by  deputy  collectors  and  customs  inspectors. 

Division  of  Police  and  Prisons 

The  Division  of  Police  and  Prisons  is  under  the 
immediate  supervision  of  a  Chief  of  Police.  There 
are  also  an  Assistant  Chief  of  Police,  two  Inspectors 
of  Police,  three  Lieutenants,  eight  Sergeants,  fifteen 
Corporals,  one  hundred  twenty-two  white  policemen 
and  ninety  negro  policemen.  The  white  policemen 
are  usually  ex-service  men  of  the  United  States 
Army,  Navy  and  Marine  corps,  many  of  whom  have 
had  military  service  in  Cuba  and  in  the  Philippines ; 
the  black  policemen  are  ex-members  of  the  West 
Indian  constabulary  or  of  the  West  Indian  Armies. 

There  is  a  Zone  penitentiary  in  which^are  kept 
about  one  hundred  forty  convicts,  most  of  them  black, 
and  these  are  employed  in  the  construction  of  mac- 
adam roads  in  the  Zone.  There  are  police  stations 
and  district  jails  at  the  principal  Zone  points,  and 
in  the  jails  are  kept  the  prisoners  awaiting  trial, 
and  those  who  are  serving  sentences  for  the  com- 
mission of  misdemeanor  offenses.  The  last  named 


I.  SQUAD  OF  CANAL  ZONE  MOUNTED  POLICE 

ii.  A  QUARTERMASTER'S  CORRAL  (139) 


DEPARTMENT  OP  CIVIL  ADMINISTRATION        141 

prisoners  are  required  to  work  in  the  maintenance  of 
roads  and  streets.  In  the  penitentiary  a  system  of 
grading  became  effective  February  24,  1911,  whereby 
prisoners  may,  by  good  conduct,  pass  from  the  striped 
clothing  grade  to  that  of  plain  gray  clothing.  By 
this  and  other  humane  features,  infractions  of  prison 
discipline  have  been  greatly  reduced,  and  the  best 
prison  results  secured.  Corporal  punishment  hi  the 
prisons  is  not  tolerated. 

Division  of  Fire  Protection 

The  Division  of  Fire  Protection  is  under  the  direct 
supervision  of  a  Fire  Chief.  There  are  an  Assistant 
Fire  Chief,  seven  Captains,  seven  Lieutenants, 
forty-one  Firemen,  one  Engineer,  one  Electrician, 
and  one  Lineman,  all  of  whom  are  men  of  experience 
and  have  seen  fire  service  in  cities  of  the  United 
States.  At  Cristobal,  Gatun,  Gorgona,  Empire, 
Culebra  and  Ancon  there  are  maintained  fire  stations 
with  fire  wagons,  horses  and  the  requisite  force  of 
firemen ;  and  at  the  Cristobal  and  Ancon  fire  stations 
there  are  also  automobile  fire  engines.  In  the 
smaller  towns  there  are  one-man  fire  stations,  each 
in  charge  of  a  paid  fireman,  with  hose  wagon  and 
hose ;  and  at  such  points  there  are  also  maintained 
volunteer  fire  companies  made  up  of  Commission  and 
Panama  Railroad  employees  who  turn  out  under  the 


142  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

direction  of  the  paid  fireman  and  engage  in  fire  fight- 
ing when  fires  occur.  The  work  of  this  division  has 
been  especially  efficient,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  small 
number  of  destructive  fires  in  the  Zone,  notwith- 
standing the  presence  of  so  vast  an  amount  of  in- 
flammable property. 

Division  of  Public  "Works 

The  Division  of  Public  Works  is  in  immediate 
charge  of  a  Superintendent  of  Public  Works.  This 
division  performs  for  the  Department  of  Civil  Ad- 
ministration the  work  of  maintaining  the  water, 
sewer  and  street  systems  of  the  cities  of  Panama  and 
Colon,  and  makes  collection  of  water  rentals  from  pri- 
vate consumers  in  the  two  cities.  These  sanitary  im- 
provements are  thus  maintained  agreeably  to  Treaty 
provisions.  The  water  rentals  are  collected  and  are 
applied  to  the  extinction  of  the  debt  due  from  the 
Republic  of  Panama  to  the  United  States  government 
for  the  construction  of  these  improvements  in  the  two 
cities.  Such  construction  was  necessary  to  make 
these  cities  sanitary  and  wholesome,  and  in  fifty  years 
the  improvements  will  have  been  fully  paid  for  by 
the  Panamanian  government  through  the  collection 
of  water  rentals  from  private  consumers,  and  without 
cost  to  that  government.  The  ownership  of  these  im- 
provements will  then  pass  to  the  Republic  of  Panama. 


DEPARTMENT   OF   CIVIL  ADMINISTRATION        143 

This  division  also  has  charge  of  and  rents  out  the 
markets  owned  by  the  Canal  Zone  government  in 
the  various  Zone  towns.  These  markets  have  been 
constructed  in  order  to  provide  sanitary  places  for 
the  sale  of  fruits,  meats,  vegetables  and  other  articles. 
The  revenues  derived  from  such  rentals  are  turned 
into  the  Zone  Treasury. 

One  of  Panama's  greatest  needs  is  good  roads,  and 
the  splendid  roads  maintained  by  the  Zone  govern- 
ment furnish  to  Latin  America  an  object  lesson  as 
to  the  value  of  such  thoroughfares.  The  Panamanian 
government  has  already  taken  the  cue  and  is  now 
engaged  in  the  construction  of  good  roads  between  its 
more  populous  communities. 

Steam  Vessel  Inspection  Service 

The  Steam  Vessel  Inspection  Service  is  directed 
by  a  Board  of  Inspectors  who  are  required  to  in- 
spect all  vessels  which  come  into  Zone  waters  except 
those  which  have  been  duly  inspected  and  certificated 
by  the  principal  maritime  governments. 

The  duties  of  the  Treasurer  and  the  Auditor  of  the 
Canal  Zone  government  are  such  as  obtain  hi  posi- 
tions of  like  character  in  the  States. 

Judicial  Division 

The  Judicial  Branch  of  the  Department  of  Civil 
Administration  is  constituted  as  follows :  four  Dis- 


144  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

trict  Courts,  three  Circuit  Courts  and  a  Supreme 
Court.  The  Zone  is  divided  into  four  administra- 
tive districts;  in  each  there  is  a  District  Court 
with  jurisdiction  to  try  misdemeanors  and  minor 
civil  cases,  and  with  power  to  hold  preliminary 
examinations  of  persons  charged  with  felonies.  The 
organization  provides  for  five  District  Judges,  one 
of  whom  is  styled  the  Senior  District  Judge;  and 
for  three  Circuit  Court  Judges  who  have  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  more  important  misdemeanor  cases,  of 
felony  prosecutions  and  of  the  more  important  civil 
litigation. 

The  Supreme  Court  is  the  final  court  of  appeal  in 
the  Zone,  and  the  three  Circuit  Judges  sitting  en 
bane  constitute  this  court.  Two  of  the  Circuit 
Judges  may,  however,  constitute  a  quorum,  and  this 
is  usually  necessary,  as  the  appeal  to  be  tried  is 
usually  from  one  of  the  three  Circuit  Judges.  If,  on 
such  appeal,  the  two  judges  hearing  it  disagree,  the 
appeal  is  lost ;  if  they  agree  to  reverse,  a  reversal  is 
had,  or  if  they  agree  to  affirm,  an  affirmance  is  had. 
From  the  decision  of  this  court  there  is  no  appeal. 
This  fact  has  proved  an  advantage,  because  it  would 
be  quite  difficult  for  defendants  and  litigants  in 
the  Canal  Zone  to  prosecute  appeals  from  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  Zone  to  the  courts  of  the 
United  States. 


DEPARTMENT  OF  CIVIL  ADMINISTRATION  145 

Division  of  Schools 

Ask  any  schoolboy  what  he  is  doing  here  and  he 
will  tell  you  "Helpin'  to  dig  the  big  ditch."  He 
has  told  more  truth  than  he  knows.  The  fact  that  it 
is  possible  for  him  to  be  here  hi  good  health,  sur- 
rounded by  a  wholesome  social  atmosphere,  and 
furnished  with  excellent  school  facilities,  has  made 
it  easy  for  the  Commission  to  secure  the  services  of 
his  father,  who  is  an  expert  workman  with  serious 
intentions  and  fixed  purposes. 

The  schools  were  organized  into  a  system  in  1906 
and  have  steadily  grown,  until  at  present  the  system 
includes  a  Superintendent,  two  Assistants,  a  Music 
Supervisor,  a  Medical  Examiner,  eighty  teachers 
and  three  thousand  pupils.  The  schools  are  sup- 
ported by  revenues  raised  on  the  Canal  Zone  and 
are  not  an  expense  to  the  United  States  government. 

The  school  buildings  are  constructed  on  the  most 
recent  plans  evolved  by  scientific  study  in  school 
hygiene,  and  are  especially  adapted  to  the  tropics. 
They  are  equipped  with  modern  sanitary  steel 
desks  and  all  the  furnishings  of  the  best  graded 
systems  of  the  schools  of  the  States.  Free  texts, 
free  stationery,  free  medical  treatment  and  free 
tuition  are  furnished  all  children  resident  on  the 
Canal  Zone  and  all  nonresident  employees'  children. 

The  qualifications  required  for  appointment  to 


146  THE   STORY   OF  PANAMA 

this  division  are  high.  No  teacher  in  the  United 
States  can  hope  to  get  a  position  on  the  Canal  Zone 
who  has  not  had  four  years'  high  school  training, 
at  least  two  years'  university  or  normal  training 
and  two  years'  successful  teaching  experience.  It 
will  thus  be  seen  that  the  qualifications  required  are 
much  above  those  of  the  average  American  city 
system.  Politics  and  the  recommendations  of  poli- 
ticians have  no  place  in  the  administration  of  the 
Canal  Zone  schools.  The  personnel  of  the  Division 
of  Schools  is  quite  equal  to  that  of  the  very  best 
systems,  and  the  organization,  methods  of  teach- 
ing and  equipment  are  such  that  men  with  families 
do  not  count  inadequate  school  facilities  among  the 
objectionable  features  of  living  in  Panama. 

The  small  size  of  many  of  the  communities  has 
made  the  proper  grading  of  the  schools  a  difficult 
problem.  As  in  the  United  States,  free  transporta- 
tion was  found  to  be  the  only  remedy.  In  1910  and 
1911,  a  number  of  the  white  schools  were  consoli- 
dated. Children  are  transported  by  school  wagons 
from  the  smaller  to  the  larger  towns.  Children 
living  in  communities  not  connected  with  the  larger 
communities  by  good  roads  are  transported  by  rail. 
Hence  a  well  graded  system  of  schools  is  practicable. 

A  feature  of  the  work  of  this  division  is  its  policy 
of  giving  practical  education  to  the  natives  and  to 
the  West  Indians.  To  accomplish  this  purpose, 


I.    PRIMARY    GRADES   AT    PLAY,    GATUN    WHITE    SCHOOL 
II.    NATIVE   SCHOOL,    SAN   MIGUEL  (148) 


DEPARTMENT   OF   CIVIL   ADMINISTRATION         149 

school  gardens  have  been  established  alx  various 
places. along  the  canal  line.  Notable  among  these 
is  the  school  garden  at  Empire,  where  a  thorough 
and  systematic  course  in  horticulture  is  given.  Here 
bananas,  papayas,  cacao,  okra,  beans,  peas,  radishes, 
turnips,  cabbage,  lettuce,  tomatoes  and  yams  are 
cultivated  with  good  results.  While  it  requires  con- 
siderable expense  to  produce  crops  indigenous  to  the 
temperate  zone,  the  results  achieved  have  been  grati- 
fying. All  kinds  of  tropical  fruits  and  vegetables  do 
well  here,  and  the  coconuts,  bananas,  lemons,  oranges, 
mangoes,  alligator  pears  and  pineapples  are  equal 
in  size  and  quality  to  those  grown  anywhere.  As 
the  West  Indian  and  native  children  will  be  depend- 
ent on  the  products  of  the  soil  for  a  livelihood,  the 
practical  training  received  will  be  invaluable. 

The  schools  of  the  Canal  Zone  are  in  two  divisions, 
the  white  and  the  colored.  The  white  schools  are  at- 
tended by  American  pupils  and  taught  by  American 
teachers.  The  colored  schools  are  attended  by 
natives  and  West  Indians,  and  are  taught  by  West 
Indian  teachers.  So  far  as  discipline,  school  equip- 
ment and  methods  are  concerned,  it  may  be  said 
that  the  colored  schools  of  the  Canal  Zone  are  much 
above  the  average  schools  of  this  type.  The  colored 
teachers  are  men  who  have  graduated  in  the  best 
West  Indian  colleges  and  who  have  had  ample  teach- 
ing experience  in  West  Indian  schools. 


CHAPTER  XI 

OTHER  DEPARTMENTS 

OTHER  departments  whose  work,  though  none  the 
less  important,  is  not  quite  so  much  in  evidence  to 
the  visitor  are  the  Departments  of  Law,  Disburse- 
ments, Examination  of  Accounts,  General  Purchas- 
ing Office  and  Investigations,  and  the  Canal 
Record.  The  relation  of  these  departments  to  the 
general  organization  is  shown  on  page  99. 

The  organization  of  the  Department  of  Law  com- 
prises a  Counsel  and  Chief  Attorney  for  the  Com- 
mission and  the  Panama  Railroad  Company,  a  Land 
Office  and  the  Office  of  Prosecuting  Attorney.  The 
head  of  this  department  is  the  legal  adviser  of  the 
Commission  and  the  Panama  Railroad.  To  quote 
from  the  annual  report  of  1911,  "The  head  of  this 
department  has  the  direction  and  control  of  all 
litigation  before  the  courts  of  the  Canal  Zone  and 
the  Republic  of  Panama  in  which  the  Commission 
or  the  Government  of  the  Canal  Zone  or  any  of  its 
dependencies  are  interested  or  involved,  and  the 
supervision  and  direction  of  all  prosecutions  of 
offenses  against  the  laws  of  the  Canal  Zone." 

150 


OTHER  DEPARTMENTS  151 

In  addition  to  [these  duties,  the  department 
drafts  legislative  measures  for  the  Canal  Zone  gov- 
ernment and  has  under  its  direction  the  execution  of 
leases  of  public  land,  and  the  settlement  of  all  damage 
claims  arising  from  the  invasion  of  private  lands  on 
the  Zone  on  account  of  canal  construction  operations. 

The  majority  of  damage  claims  have  arisen  from 
the  flooding  of  the  Lake  district  by  the  impounding 
of  the  Chagres  River  at  Gatun.  This  district  com- 
prises an  area  of  one  hundred  sixty-four  square  miles, 
and  all  persons  who  have  been  able  to  establish 
reasonable  claims  to  property  therein  have  been 
liberally  reimbursed  for  their  losses. 

Criminal  and  civil  cases  on  the  Canal  Zone  are 
handled  by  the  courts  in  exactly  the  same  way  as 
such  cases  are  dealt  with  hi  the  States,  except  that 
all  cases  are  presented  by  indictment,  the  Prosecut- 
ing Attorney  prosecuting  all  felony  cases.  Minor 
offenses  are  tried  hi  the  District  Courts  upon  presen- 
tation by  police  officers,  but  appeal  may  be  had  to 
the  Circuit,  and  finally  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
Canal  Zone.  The  District  Courts  may  be  compared 
to  the  Justice  of  the  Peace  Courts  in  the  States. 
Most  of  the  criminal  cases  hi  the  courts  are  brought 
against  West  Indian  negroes  and  Spanish  laborers. 
To  the  credit  of  Americans  on  the  Zone,  it  is  stated 
by  Judge  Frank  Feuille,  that  "No  colony  of  Ameri- 
cans anywhere  under  the  flag  presents  a  better 


152  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

record  for  law  and  order  than  that  found  among  the 
Americans  who  are  engaged  in  the  work  of  building 
the  canal." 

The  Department  of  Examination  of  Accounts,  as 
the  name  implies,  audits  the  financial  transactions 
of  all  the  departments.  It  does  the  bookkeeping  of 
this  big  organization.  Other  duties  fall  to  the  office 
of  the  Examiner  of  Accounts,  such  as  the  checking 
of  the  various  time  keeping  offices  and  the  direction 
of  the  time  inspection  work. 

One  gets  an  idea  of  the  stupendous  nature  of  the 
work  going  on  here  from  a  glance  at  the  table  oppo- 
site, made  up  by  the  head  of  this  department,  showing 
a  classified  list  of  expenditures  to  February  29, 1912. 

Under  the  direction  of  the  General  Purchasing 
Officer  and  Chief  of  Office  at  Washington  are  the 
following  divisions:  General  Office,  Disbursing 
Office,  Office  of  Assistant  Examiner  of  Accounts, 
Appointment  Division,  Correspondence  and  Record 
Division  and  Purchasing  Division.  The  duties  of 
this  office  may  be  summed  up  as  follows :  the  ad- 
vertising and  letting  of  bids  for  all  Commission  sup- 
plies, through  Assistant  Purchasing  Officers  at  New 
York,  New  Orleans  and  San  Francisco ;  the  selection 
and  appointment  of  employees  on  the  Isthmus ;  the 
consideration  and  settlement  of  contract  bills  against 
the  Commission,  the  auditing  of  all  receipts  and 
disbursements  made  by  the  office,  the  inspection  of 


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154  THE   STORY  OP  PANAMA 

all  supplies  forwarded  to  the  Isthmus  on  govern- 
ment contracts,  and  arrangement  of  transportation 
for  both  new  employees  and  those  returning  to  the 
Isthmus  from  leave. 

The  Department  of  Disbursements  has  the  custody 
of  all  Commission  funds  on  the  Isthmus.  It  has 
besides  its  money  responsibility  the  issuance  of  all 
hotel  and  commissary  coupon  books  to  the  various 
departments,  and  the  receipt  and  expenditure  of  the 
appropriations  for  all  phases  of  the  construction 
work.  The  financial  responsibility  of  this  and  of 
the  Washington  office  is  about  $37,000,000  a  year. 

Besides  the  duties  devolving  upon  him  in  keeping 
a  record  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Canal  Commis- 
sion, the  Secretary  of  the  Commission  investigates 
all  complaints  made  by  laborers  to  the  Chairman  of 
the  Commission,  and  compiles  and  edits  the  Canal 
Record,  the  official  organ  of  the  Commission. 

The  Canal  Record  is  published  weekly,  and  is  issued 
to  all  employees  of  the  Government  here.  In  its 
issues  are  the  Chairman's  monthly  reports  to  the 
Secretary  of  War,  notes  on  the  progress  and  con- 
struction of  the  canal,  personal  notes  of  consequence, 
and  official  announcements  and  circular  letters. 
The  Record  is  strictly  a  business  institution  and 
as  such  perpetrates  no  funny  pages,  uses  no  super- 
lative adjectives,  reproduces  no  elegiac  poetry,  but 
deports  itself  along  sober  lines  generally. 


OTHER  DEPARTMENTS  155 

After  our  trip  across  the  Isthmus  it  is  unnecessary 
to  discuss  further  the  work  of  the  Engineering  De- 
partment. At  the  head  of  this  department  is  the 
Chief  Engineer.  There  are  under  his  immediate 
direction  the  Atlantic,  Central  and  Pacific  divisions. 
In  the  office  of  the  Chief  Engineer  are  three  divisions 
having  charge  of  (1)  masonry,  lock  structure,  lock 
machinery,  etc. ;  (2)  meteorology,  river  hydraulics, 
etc. ;  (3)  estimates,  allotments  of  funds,  rates  of 
pay,  cost  keeping,  etc.  The  Engineering  Depart- 
ment is,  as  the  French  put  it,  the  raison  d'etre  of  all 
the  other  departments. 


PART  TWO 
THE  CANAL  COUNTRY 


CHAPTER  I 

COLUMBUS 

THE  stirring  scenes  along  the  line  of  the  canal  are 
apt  to  make  the  tourist  forget  that  he  is  in  a  land 
with  a  past.  Yet  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  is  the 
birthplace  of  American  history.  When  the  Panama 
Canal  is  completed,  the  dreams  of  Columbus  will 
have  been  fulfilled  in  the  establishment  of  a  New 
Route  to  India  —  the  route  which  he  sought  in  his 
first  voyage  into  unknown  western  waters  and 
which  was  to  the  end  the  object  of  his  quest.  Every 
schoolboy  knows  the  absorbing  history  of  this 
famous  old  navigator,  who,  because  he  had  the 
courage  of  his  convictions,  braved  superstition, 
prejudice  and  ridicule  to  launch  into  unexplored 
seas.  But  few  realize  the  intimate  connection 
which  the  Genoese  sailor-hero  has  with  the  history 
of  Panama  and  the  canal.  It  is  this  part  of  the 
Columbus  story  which  we  must  review  in  telling  the 
story  of  Panama. 

The  discovery  of  America  was  an  accident.  The 
voyages  of  Columbus  were  actuated  not  so  much 
by  a  desire  to  prove  that  the  earth  is  round  as  to  find 

159 


160  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

the  land  of  the  Great  Khan  of  China,  that  wonderful 
land  abounding  in  riches  —  a  land  of  spices,  silks 
and  manifold  luxuries ;  a  land  whose  glories  Colum- 
bus had  learned  from  Marco  Polo  and  other  overland 
travelers  to  the  Orient.  Now,  among  the  things 
which  incited  Columbus  on  his  westward  voyage  was 
Toscanelli's  map,  which  showed  the  earth  to  be 
round  but  very  small.  According  to  ToscaneUTs 
geography  Asia  and  Europe  occupied  about  two 
thirds  of  the  globe's  surface.  So  the  east  coast  of 
Asia  appeared  on  the  map  just  about  where  America 
actually  is.  Small  wonder,  then,  that  Columbus, 
when  he  discovered  the  New  World,  refused  to  be- 
lieve that  the  land  he  beheld  was  any  other  than  that 
of  Cipango  and  Cathay  —  Japan  and  China. 

In  all,  Columbus  made  four  voyages  to  America, 
but  he  died  without  knowing  that  he  had  discovered 
a  new  world,  and  with  the  firm  conviction  that  very 
soon  the  " Secret  of  the  Strait"  would  be  solved  and 
ships  from  Europe  would  sail  into  a  leading  port 
of  the  Orient.  He  believed  he  had  found  the  new 
route  to  India.  His  fourth  and  last  voyage  was  still 
in  quest  of  this  passage,  which  he  felt  sure  would 
lead  him  directly  to  the  throne  of  the  Great  Khan, 
to  whom  he  carried  letters  of  greeting  from  the 
monarchs  of  Spain.  It  was  on  this  voyage  that  he 
discovered  the  mainland  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 
The  pioneer  of  the  New  World  thought  of  this  newly 


CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS  (161) 

From  a  painting  by  Del  Piombo,  property  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum 
of  Art. 


COLUMBUS  163 

discovered  land  as  merely  a  part  of  the  realms  of 
Cathay.  It  remained  for  Balboa,  some  seven  years 
later,  to  discover  the  existence  of  an  isthmus  and  of 
another  great  ocean. 

"In  this  same  year,  1502,  Christopher  Columbus 
entered  the  fourth  time  into  his  discovery,  with  four 
ships,  at  the  command  of  Don  Ferdinand,  to  seek 
the  strait  which,  as  they  said,  did  divide  the  land 
from  the  other  side. "  Thus  quaintly  does  the  old 
Spanish  historian,  Galvano,  introduce  his  tale  of 
Columbus's  fourth  voyage  by  telling  the  one  great 
motive  which  actuated  the  discoverer.  Following 
the  story,  we  find  that  Columbus  on  this  voyage 
skirted  the  islands  of  Haiti  and  Jamaica  and  thence 
sailed  westward  past  Cuba  to  Honduras  Bay. 

Now  from  the  Bay  of  Honduras  the  coast  line 
runs  almost  due  east,  and  it  was  in  this  direction  that 
Columbus,  with  his  four  flat-bottomed,  clumsy  boats, 
crept  along  against  the  wind.  At  last  they  reached 
the  point  where  the  coast  makes  a  sharp  turn  to  the 
south,  and  rounding  it,  found  themselves  pushed 
along  by  a  welcome  breeze  from  the  north.  Then 
in  gratitude  to  the  Almighty  they  named  the  point 
where  their  luck  changed,  "Gratias  a  Dios."  Down 
that  shore  line,  famed  in  after  years  as  the  Mosquito 
Coast,  thence  along  the  Costa  Rican  shore  and  into 
the  Chiriqui  Lagoon,  sailed  Columbus.  He  had  now 
reached  the  coast  line  of  Panama,  and  he  explored 


164  THE   STORY  OP  PANAMA* 

with  care  each  river  mouth  and  bay.  He  entered 
the  River  of  Crocodiles,  later  the  famous  Chagres. 
Stopping  at  the  Isle  of  Bastimentos  —  Isle  of  Vict- 
uals, so  named^by  Columbus  because  the  ships  were 
provisioned  there  —  the  four  vessels  on  November  2, 
1502,  entered  the  spacious  deep-water  harbor  at 
Porto  Bello,  where  he  stayed  for  a  few  days. 

Doubling  back  on  his  course  Columbus  again 
sought  the  entrance  to  the  strait  which  he  believed 
to  exist  along  the  Panamanian  shore,  for  the  In- 
dians had  told  him  that  there  was  a  narrow  place 
between  two  seas;  very  likely  the  Indians  meant 
the  Isthmus.  Spending  the  winter  along  the  coast 
of  Veraguas,  the  old  admiral  once  more  sought  the 
strait,  cruising  south  to  the  Gulf  of  Darien,  where  the 
Isthmus  joins  the  mainland  of  South  America. 
Giving  up  the  quest  here,  he  finally  returned  to 
Haiti. 

Inasmuch  as  November  2  is  the  day  of  the  month 
on  which  Columbus  landed  upon  Isthmian  soil  and 
November  3  is  the  day  now  celebrated  by  Panama- 
nian citizens  as  Independence  Day,  it  has  been  sug- 
gested that  the  celebration  be  a  double  one,  commemo- 
rating the  discovery  of  the  Isthmus  and  the  freedom 
of  the  Republic.  This  would  perhaps  be  appropriate 
were  November  2,  1502,  the  actual  date  of  the  dis- 
covery, but  it  is  not. 

Columbus  was  not  the  discoverer  of  the  Isthmus 


COLUMBUS  165 

of  Panama.  Preceding  him  by  more  than  a  year 
came  Roderigo  de  Bastidas,  who  had  set  out  from 
Spain  in  1500,  sailing  directly  for  the  Isthmian  main- 
land. He  made  harbor  at  Porto  Bello,  and  was  per- 
haps the  first  European  to  touch  Panamanian  shores. 
Bastidas  was,  as  were  other  explorers  of  the  time, 
searching  for  the  secret  strait,  so  his  visit  fits  in  with 
the  conceit  that  the  early  discoverers  of  the  Isthmus 
were  fathers  of  the  modern  canal  idea.  Since  Bas- 
tidas landed  at  Porto  Bello  early  in  1501,  his  discov- 
ery precedes  that  of  Columbus  by  a  good  year  and 
a  half.  He  "sailed  thence  southward  to  the  Gulf  of 
Darien  and  doubled  back  northward  to  Haiti.  Bas- 
tidas had  two  motives  for  his  voyage ;  he  wanted  to 
find  the  supposed  strait,  and  he  wanted  to  find  gold. 
Later  he  made  a  second  voyage,  which  was  purely  a 
gold-seeking  expedition. 

Following  Bastidas  and  Columbus  in  their  dis- 
coveries along  the  Isthmian  coast,  comes  Alfonzo  de 
Ojeda,  but  his  story  is  so  closely  associated  with  the 
fascinating  tale  of  Balboa  that  it  had  better  be  told 
in  that  connection.  Ojeda  had  even  preceded  Bas- 
tidas in  a  visit  to  the  western  shore  line  of  the  Carib- 
bean, but  he  probably  did  not  go  as  far  north  as  did 
Bastidas,  who,  the  records  tell,  sailed  northward  into 
"nine  degrees  and  two  parts  of  the  latitude."  Ojeda 
sailed  into  the  Gulf  of  Darien  and  along  the  coast 
of  Venezuela. 


166  THE    STORY   OF   PANAMA 

Though  we  cannot  give  Columbus  first  honors  in 
the  matter  of  discoveiy  along  the  Isthmian  main- 
land, it  is  to  the  matchless  Genoese  navigator  that 
the  popular  mind  always  turns  when  the  discovery 
of  America  or  of  any  part  of  it  is  mentioned.  In 
Panama  as  elsewhere  this  is  as  it  should  be,  for  that 
intrepid  sail  into  unknown  seas  in  1492  is  directly 
responsible  for  all  that  followed.  Though  Bastidas 
did  visit  Porto  Bello  a  year  sooner,  Columbus  was 
the  pioneer ;  and  the  statue  erected  to  his  memory 
stands  most  fittingly  at  the  entrance  of  the  great 
canal  which  is  to  materialize  his  dream  of  a  direct 
route  to  Asia. 

When  the  tourist  lands  and,  as  he  is  sure  to  do 
shortly  afterward,  whirls  up  palm  lined  Roosevelt 
Avenue  and  around  the  "point,"  he  will  come  full 
upon  one  more  striking  reminder  of  the  great  Genoese 
—  the  life-size  bronze  statue  of  Columbus  and  the 
Indian  Maiden,  which,  on  its  ten-foot  pedestal  of 
marble,  overlooks  the  entrance  to  the  canal  through 
which  some  day  will  pass  the  commerce  of  the 
world.  The  statue  (see  frontispiece)  was  cast  at 
Turin,  Italy,  for  the  Empress  Eugenie,  and  was  a 
gift  from  her  to  the  Republic  of  Colombia  in  1868. 
Two  years  later  it  was  erected  on  an  improvised  base 
in  the  railroad  yards  in  Colon  as  a  part  of  the  cele- 
bration attending  the  placing  of  the  first  cable  there, 
which  established  telegraphic  communication  with 


COLUMBUS  167 

the  world.  In  1877,  when  Count  de  Lesseps  arrived, 
he  had  the  statue  removed  from  the  railroad  yards 
to  the  beautiful  village  of  Cristobal,  which  he  was 
building  on  the  point  of  Manzanillo  Island.  The 
statue  was  placed  in  front  of  the  Count's  palace. 
Could  the  bronze  eyes  see,  what  emotions  would 
the  present  activities  inspire!  At  last,  the  New 
Route  to  India! 


CHAPTER  II 

BALBOA 

IF  there  is  any  one  figure  among  the  brilliant  array 
of  Spanish  explorers  in  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth 
century  who  stands  out  preeminently  as  the  Isth- 
mian hero,  it  is  Vasco  Nunez  de  Balboa.  His  great- 
est exploit,  the  discovery  of  the  Pacific,  though  told 
with  meagerness  of  detail  in  the  history  books,  makes 
a  vivid  appeal  to  the  mind  of  the  average  school 
boy.  Yet  this  event  was  only  the  crowning  one  of 
a  career  more  interesting  than  any  fiction.  Cruel 
he  was,  but  not  more  cruel  than  the  standards  of 
his  time  sanctioned,  while  his  other  shortcomings 
are  lost  sight  of  in  the  light  of  the  dramatic  events 
which  brought  about  his  untimely  death. 

Balboa  was  a  nobleman  of  Spain  and  a  soldier  of 
fortune,  who  like  scores  of  others  had  come  out  to 
the  New  World  to  seek  adventures  and  to  replenish 
his  fortunes.  He  was  with  Bastidas  when  that 
explorer  landed  at  Porto  Bello,  a  year  in  advance  of 
Columbus.  When  they  had  returned  to  Haiti,  and 
the  varying  fortunes  of  those  stirring  days  had  re- 
sulted in  the  arrest  of  Bastidas,  Balboa  found  him- 

168 


BALBOA  169 

self  without  an  occupation  and  decided  to  settle 
down  as  a  farmer.  But  agriculture  was  little  to  the 
liking  of  such  a  rover,  nor  could  he  make  a  success 
of  it.  His  debts  overwhelmed  him ;  finally  he  con- 
cluded that  his  only  chance  to  escape  from  all  his 
troubles  was  to  conceal  himself  in  a  cask  and  to 
allow  himself  to  be  carried  on  board  one  of  the 
vessels  which  lay  in  the  harbor  at  San  Domingo. 

His  scheme  was  successful.  It  so  happened  that 
the  ship  onto  which  he  was  carried  was  one  of  En- 
cisco's,  bound  on  a  relief  expedition  to  the  Gulf  of 
Darien  where  Ojeda  and  Niqueza  had  attempted 
to  plant  colonies.  Once  at  sea  Balboa  made  himself 
known,  and  overcame  Encisco's  determination  to 
throw  him  overboard  by  telling  of  his  previous  trip 
to  the  Isthmian  mainland  with  Bastidas  and  by 
promising  to  be  of  some  service.  He  was  a  man  of 
thirty-five,  full  of  vigor,  and  with  a  knowledge  of 
the  mainland  which  Encisco  wisely  considered  might 
make  him  worth  having. 

The  expedition  on  which  Balboa  found  himself 
followed  up  the  ill-fated  one  of  the  year  before,  1509, 
which  had  been  undertaken  by  Ojeda  and  Niqueza. 
They  had  been  appointed  governors  of  all  the  main- 
land from  Cape  de  la  Vela  on  the  Venezuelan  coast 
to  Cape  Gracias  a"  Dios  off  Honduras.  With  the 
Gulf  of  Darien  as  the  dividing  line  between  them, 
this  whole  country  had  been  placed  under  these  two 


170  THE   STORY  OP  PANAMA 

governors.  With  four  ships  and  three  hundred 
soldiers  Ojeda  had  preceded  Niqueza  on  the  trip  to 
their  provinces.  Niqueza,  who  had  followed  with 
seven  ships  and  eight  hundred  men,  found  Ojeda  near 
Cartagena,  weakened  by  an  Indian  attack  and  about 
to  give  up.  Uniting  forces,  the  two  governors 
avenged  themselves  on  the  Indians.  Then  they 
founded  several  towns,  among  them  Nombre  de 
Dios. 

This  place,  the  oldest  historic  spot  on  that  part 
of  the  Isthmus  of  interest  to  us,  was  so  named  by 
Niqueza  after  a  shipwreck  had  scattered  his  men 
along  the  coast.  Gathering  them  up  and  doubling 
Manzanillo  Point,  he  came  suddenly  upon  the  harbor, 
and  said,  "Here  we  will  land,  in  the  name  of  God." 
Trusting  to  the  Almighty  to  make  up  for  the  de- 
ficiencies of  the  spot,  he  established  Nombre  de  Dios, 
which,  despite  its  poor  harbor  and  its  unhealthful 
site,  remained  the  chief  Spanish  port  of  the  Atlantic 
side  of  the  Isthmus  during  three-quarters  of  a  century. 
Niqueza  and  Ojeda  both  perished  in  these  enter- 
prises, leaving  the  colony  on  the  Gulf  of  Darien  in 
charge  of  Pizarro,  later  destined  to  play  a  more 
important  r61e  in  the  drama  of  discovery  and  con- 
quest. 

When  Encisco  and  Balboa  arrived  in  1510,  they 
found  the  town  of  San  Sebastian  all  but  destroyed 
and  the  future  conqueror  of  Peru  ready  to  give  up 


BALBOA  171 

in  despair.  Then  it  was  that  Balboa  proved  him- 
self to  be  a  man  of  affairs.  He  had  Encisco  declared 
governor  as  the  successor  of  Niqueza,  and  with  him 
established  the  town  of  Santa  Maria  del  Antigua  on 
the  west  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Darien,  opposite  the 
site  of  San  Sebastian.  Of  this  new  town,  Balboa 
was  made  alcalde  or  mayor.  Speedily  on  the  heels 
of  this,  he  quarreled  with  Encisco,  gained  the  ascend- 
ancy, clapped  that  worthy  into  chains,  and  sent  him 
back  to  Spain.  This  left  the  adventurer,  who  had 
started  out  a  few  months  before  in  a  cask,  the  chief 
power  hi  all  the  Castilla  del  Oro  country.  A  com- 
mission from  Haiti  strengthened  his  position,  and 
he  became  the  governor  in  name  as  well  as  in  fact. 

Balboa  was  now  at  the  height  of  his  power,  making 
treaties  with  the  Indians,  sending  Pizarro  on  explor- 
ing expeditions,  and  fighting  the  chieftains  who 
opposed  his  progress.  As  Rolfe  did  in  later  years,  he 
married  a  native  Indian  princess.  He  made  an  alli- 
ance with  Comogre,  a  powerful  chieftain.  He  made 
a  trip  up  the  Atrato  River  in  search  of  a  city  of 
gold  which  the  Indians  said  existed  there.  It  was 
probably  a  tradition  of  the  wealth  of  the  Incas  which 
had  filtered  through  to  the  coast. 

Only  one  cloud  hung  over  the  success  of  Balboa. 
It  was  the  fear  that  the  king  of  Spain  might  not 
relish  his  treatment  of  Encisco.  Indeed,  that  monarch 
had  sent  word  for  Balboa  to  come  home  and  answer 


172  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

charges.  To  checkmate  this,  perhaps,  by  doing 
some  spectacular  deed  \vhich  would  render  his  ser- 
vices on  the  mainland  invaluable,  he  planned  his 
great  exploring  trip  to  find  the  "South  Sea"  of  which 
the  Indians  had  told  him. 

On  September  1,  1513,  with  one  hundred  and 
ninety  white  men,  one  hundred  Indians  and  some 
savage  dogs,  Balboa  left  Santa  Maria,  his  settlement 
on  the  Gulf  of  Darien.  On  September  8  he  started 
inland.  Hewing  a  path  through  the  jungle,  climb- 
ing mountains  and  fighting  Indians,  was  slow  work, 
so  the  party  only  made  a  few  miles  a  day.  At  last, 
on  September  25,  from  the  top  of  a  mountain  in  the 
Caledonian  part  of  the  Isthmus,  the  Spaniards  sighted 
the  Pacific.  The  first  white  men  to  look  upon  its 
mighty  waters  and  to  discover  that  Panama  was  only 
a  narrow  neck  of  land  between  two  great  seas,  Bal- 
boa and  his  followers  fell  on  their  knees  as  their 
priest  intoned  a  Te  [Deum. 

Four  days  later,  after  more  hewing  through 
tropical  undergrowth,  Balboa  waded  into  the  waters 
of  the  " South  Sea"  and,  brandishing  his  sword, 
proclaimed  all  the  lands  which  its  waters  touched 
as  belonging  to  the  king  of  Spain  —  a  mighty  claim 
indeed,  and  one  whose  magnitude  neither  Balboa  nor 
any  one  else  of  his  time  realized. 

From  Santa  Maria,  Balboa  had  crossed  the  Isth- 
mus along  what  was  afterwards  surveyed  as  one  of 


BALBOA  175 

the  possible  canal  routes,  the  Caledonian  route,  which 
has  the  distinction  of  being  the  very  shortest,  though 
not  the  most  feasible  because  of  its  elevation.  Had 
he  been  armed  with  instruments,  as  was  Lieutenant 
Wyse  more  than  three  centuries  later,  the  explorer 
would  have  found  the  distance  in  a  straight  line  from 
ocean  to  ocean  only  31.8  miles.  Floundering  through 
rank  vegetation  and  mountain  fastnesses,  Balboa 
traveled  much  farther  than  this  to  reach  his  goal. 

A  devout  Catholic,  Balboa  named  the  bay  into 
which  he  waded  the  Gulf  of  San  Miguel,  in  honor  of 
St.  Michael,  the  saint  whom  his  church  celebrates 
on  September  29.  This  name  the  gulf  still  bears. 
Balboa  did  not  land  in  the  Bay  of  Panama  as  Isth- 
mian tourists  are  sometimes  made  to  believe,  nor 
did  he  cross  the  Isthmus  within  seventy-five  miles 
of  the  present  canal  route.  Visitors  to  Panama, 
and  others  long  resident  in  the  Canal  Zone,  climb  a 
steep  hill  near  Gorgona,  called  " Balboa  Hill,"  think- 
ing thereby  to  emulate  the  feat  of  the  explorer.  On  a 
tree  at  its  summit  some  one  has  placed  a  rude  cross- 
piece  which  enthusiastic  climbers  declare  must  have 
been  nailed  there  by  Balboa  himself.  The  hill  is 
worth  climbing,  for  from  its  top,  on  a  clear  day,  one 
may  get  a  view  of  both  oceans;  but  it  has  no 
historic  importance. 

Determined  to  sail  upon  the  sea  into  whose  waters 
he  had  waded,  Balboa  constructed  some  rude  boats 


176  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

and  embarked,  exploring  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  San 
Miguel,  and  according  to  some  accounts  going  as  far 
as  the  Pearl  Islands  off  the  Bay  of  Panama.  Return- 
ing, he  brought  rich  stores  of  gold,  silver  and  pearls. 
Arriving  at  Santa  Maria  with  the  consciousness  of 
a  deed  well  done,  the  discoverer  sent  the  news  to  his 
monarch,  who  promptly  concluded  that  Balboa  had 
no  time  to  come  to  Spain  to  answer  Encisco's  charges. 

The  king  accordingly  made  Balboa  governor  of 
the  newly  discovered  " South  Sea"  and  of  the  coasts 
which  it  touched.  Unfortunately  for  Balboa,  the 
ship  which  bore  him  this  good  news  brought  out 
Pedro  Arias  de  Avila,  known  in  history  as  Pedrarias, 
who  was  to  supersede  the  discoverer  of  the  Pacific 
as  governor  of  Castilla  del  Oro. 

In  the  spring  of  1514,  Pedrarias,  with  his  wife, 
seven  ships  and  fifteen  hundred  men,  arrived  in 
Darien.  Of  his  atrocious  cruelties  enough  has  been 
written  to  make  him  infamous.  Summing  up  his 
character  from  a  modern  view,  Johnson  says,  "The 
best  thing  about  him  was  his  old  age,  which  made 
his  days  comparatively  few  in  the  land  which  he 
cursed."  This  is  a  mild  criticism  as  compared  with 
those  made  by  the  old  historians  who  were  contem- 
porary with  Pedrarias,  not  one  of  whom  tries  to  de- 
fend him. 

At  once  there  was  bad  blood  between  Pedrarias 
and  Balboa.  Aside  from  the  jealousy  of  Pedrarias, 


BALBOA  177 

accounts  differ  as  to  the  cause  of  the  trouble.  It 
is  related  that  Pedrarias  became  the  father-in-law 
of  Balboa  and  that  this  led  to  domestic  troubles. 
Again,  it  is  said  that  Balboa  refused  to  repudiate  his 
Indian  wife  and  marry  the  daughter  of  Pedrarias. 
At  all  events,  there  was  hard  feeling,  and  the  situa- 
tion boded  no  good  for  Balboa. 

Immediately  upon  his  arrival  the  new  governor 
had  arrested  Balboa,  but  had  been  unable  to  convict 
him.  Thereafter  a  truce  was  arranged  between 
them;  Pedrarias  was  to  govern  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board and  Balboa  was  to  be  left  free  to  continue 
his  explorations  on  the  "  South  Sea."  For  a  long 
time  Balboa  had  been  revolving  in  his  mind  a  scheme 
which  he  attempted  to  execute  in  1516.  Taking 
the  materials  for  four  ships,  and  utilizing  the  Indians 
to  carry  them  across  the  almost  impassable  mountains, 
he  launched  in  the  Gulf  of  San  Miguel  the  first  ships 
to  sail  the  Pacific.  Undoubtedly  his  plan  was  to 
sail  southward  in  search  of  the  city  of  gold  —  a 
quest  which  Pizarro  later  realized  in  despoiling  the 
Incas  of  Peru. 

Putting  back  to  shore  because  his  crew  had  be- 
come frightened  at  the  sight  of  a  school  of  whales, 
Balboa  was  surprised  by  a  company  of  soldiers 
under  his  old  friend  Pizarro,  who  had  been  sent  out 
by  Pedrarias  to  arrest  him.  The  Isthmian  hero 
was  hurried  back  to  Santa  Maria,  where  a  mere  farce 


178  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

of  a  trial  was  held.  He  was  convicted  and,  with 
Pedrarias  hurling  taunts  at  him  from  a  near-by  win- 
dow, Balboa,  at  the  age  of  forty-two,  in  the  prime 
of  a  great  career  of  discovery  and  exploration,  was 
beheaded.  He  perished  in  1517,  four  years  after 
his  discovery  of  the  Pacific  and  when  he  was  on  the 
verge  of  an  expedition  to  the  south  which  might 
have  been  fraught  with  great  achievements.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  the  man  who  helped  to 
bring  about  Balboa's  untimely  death  was  Pizarro, 
who  was  enabled  by  this  judicial  execution  to  carry 
out  plans  for  which  the  credit  belonged  to  Balboa. 
Next  to  Columbus,  the  name  of  Balboa  deserves, 
more  than  that  of  any  other  early  conquistador,  to  be 
commemorated  in  modern  Panama.  A  tardy  rec- 
ognition of  this  sixteenth  century  soldier  of  fortune 
has  been  recently  made  in  changing  the  name  of  the 
Pacific  entrance  to  the  canal  from  La  Boca  to  Balboa. 
In  the  future,  when  the  ships  of  all  nations  cross  the 
Isthmus  through  the  man-made  strait,  they  will 
pass  at  the  Pacific  gateway  a  port  named  after  the 
intrepid  explorer  who  first  crossed  the  same  Isthmus 
—  the  first  civilized  man  to  gaze  upon  the  waters  of 
the  "  South  Sea." 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  ROYAL  ROAD 

FAST  upon  the  heels  of  early  exploration  came  the 
conquest  and  settlement  of  the  Isthmus  by  the 
Spaniards.  It  was  not,  however,  the  kind  of  settle- 
ment which  populates  a  land  with  people  attached 
to  the  soil  and  interested  in  the  development  of 
natural  resources.  Indeed,  the  only  attempts  toward 
such  development  were  made  by  cattle  grazers  on 
the  plains  of  the  Pacific  coast  and  the  logwood 
cutters  of  Campeche  Bay,  far  north  on  the  Isthmus 
of  Tehuantepec  in  Mexico.  It  was  the  beginning 
of  Spain's  golden  age  in  her  colonies ;  no  one  had 
time  to  develop  natural  resources  so  long  as  wealth 
could  be  gathered  by  merely  taking  it  away  from  the 
Indians. 

So  settlements  here  came  to  mean  the  establish- 
ment of  towns,  filled  with  merchants  and  connected 
by  trade  routes,  along  which  might  travel  gold  and 
silver  captured  by  a  Pizarro  in  Peru,  or  rich  pearls 
taken  by  a  Morales  from  the  Pearl  Islands  in  the 
Pacific.  The  amount  of  mineral  wealth  taken  by 
Pizarro  and  his  followers  along  the  Pacific  coast 

179 


180  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

would  be  hard  to  comprehend  even  in  this  era  of 
great  fortunes.  For  a  century  and  more  it  flowed 
in  a  constant,  steady  stream  across  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama  and  into  the  coffers  of  Spain. 

The  sending  of  this  vast  wealth  across  the  Isthmus 
meant  the  building  of  cities  to  serve  as  clearing  houses 
and  the  establishing  of  a  great  road  across  the  tropical 
jungle.  It  is  of  this  royal  trade  road,  its  terminals 
and  intermediate  points  —  the  first  transcontinental 
highway  in  the  western  hemisphere  —  that  we 
would  speak.  The  tourist  who  visits  Old  Panama 
and  makes  more  than  a  cursory  inspection  of  the 
historic  place  may  catch  a  glimpse  of  this  old  road. 
It  is  now  overgrown  with  vegetation  and  loses  it- 
self amid  jungle  flora  before  one  has  followed  it  a 
hundred  yards.  Yet  it  is  the  remains  of  what  was 
once  the  richest  highway  in  the  world. 

At  the  Pacific  terminus  of  this  royal  road  stood 
the  city  of  Panama,  whose  ruins  still  exist,  five 
miles  from  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  that  name. 
The  old  city  was  founded  in  1519  by  Pedrarias,  the 
judicial  executioner  of  Balboa,  two  years  after 
he  had  brought  about  the  explorer's  death.  A  son 
of  Pedrarias  was  one  of  the  original  settlers  of  the 
place.  It  became  the  chief  Spanish  city  in  the  New 
World,  possibly  excepting  Cartagena ;  at  the  time  of 
its  destruction  by  Morgan  it  had  a  population  of 
about  thirty  thousand.  It  was  a  beautiful  place, 


THE  ROYAL  ROAD  183 

with  its  seven  thousand  houses,  most  of  them  of 
carved  native  cedar  and  others  of  stone,  erected  in 
Moorish  style.  Of  its  stone  monasteries  and  con- 
vents the  most  pretentious  was  the  cathedral  of  St. 
Anastasius,  a  truly  glorious  building  whose  ruins  still 
stand,  a  silent  reminder  in  a  tropical  wilderness  of 
the  beauty  of  a  former  age. 

Besides  the  royal  storehouses,  built  of  stone  and 
made  extra  strong  to  house  the  king's  gold,  there 
were  some  two  hundred  merchants'  warehouses, 
guarded  constantly  by  slaves.  In  addition  there 
were  the  stone  stables  of  the  king,  where  the  mules 
were  kept.  On  stated  occasions  these  mules  filed 
out  in  long  trains,  to  the  music  of  tinkling  bells 
tied  round  their  necks,  their  backs  laden  with  rich 
plate  destined  as  cargo  for  the  king's  ships  which 
lay  at  anchor  across  the  Isthmus  on  the  Atlantic 
side. 

The  port  of  old  Panama  was  bad  for  shipping 
because  of  the  tide  which  changes  the  water  front 
to  a  mile  of  wet  black  mud  with  each  rise  and  fall. 
The  harbor,  however,  was  spacious  enough  for  the 
largest  ships  to  ride  at  ease.  At  one  place  in  the 
bay  an  arm  of  the  sea  crept  inland  to  a  little  creek 
which  rose  with  the  tides.  Over  this  creek  was  a 
stone  arch  bridge  across  which  ran  the  royal  highway. 
This  stone  arch  still  stands,  a  striking  example  of 
the  careful  masonry  which  the  Spaniards  always 


184  THE  STORY  OF  PANAMA 

employed,  and  a  favorite  mark  for  amateur  pho- 
tographers who  visit  the  old  ruins.  Back  of  the  city 
lay  beautiful  rolling  plains  of  grass. 

From  the  metropolitan  city  of  Panama,  the  clear- 
ing house  for  Spanish  treasures  garnered  in  South 
America  and  along  the  Pacific  coast,  the  royal  road 
traversed  rolling  savannas  or  tropical  jungle  to  Cruces, 
which  lies  at  the  highest  navigable  point  on  the 
Chagres  River,  and  where  during  the  days  of  Spanish 
glory  there  was  a  division  of  the  king's  highway. 
One  branch  led  to  Nombre  de  Dios  (and  later  it 
went  to  Porto  Bello) ;  the  other  was  by  water  down 
the  river  to  where  it  empties  into  the  Atlantic  ocean. 
There  stood  Fort  San  Lorenzo  and  the  village  of 
Chagres. 

Cruces,  which  went  by  the  name  of  Venta  Cruz 
during  the  days  when  it  was  a  busy  transfer  station 
on  the  Isthmian  trade  route,  lay  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  Chagres.  Its  two  score  of  dwellings  and  half 
as  many  warehouses  lay  snug  along  the  river  bank, 
while  directly  back  of  them  stood  the  tropical  forest, 
impenetrable  save  where  the  royal  trail  to  Nombre 
de  Dios  picked  its  marshy,  boggy  way. 

At  Cruces  the  Chagres  River  widened  so  that 
several  of  the  large,  flat-bottomed  boats  bound  for 
Nombre  de  Dios  via  the  river  route  past  Lorenzo 
could  ride  at  anchor  easily.  When  the  river  was 
not  a  raging  torrent,  it  was  easier  to  transport  wares 


THE  ROYAL  ROAD  187 

thus  than  to  trust  them  to  the  mule  trains  which 
wormed  their  way  across  the  trail  from  Cruces  to 
Nombre  de  Dios  and  were  always  at  the  mercy  of 
the  Indians. 

The  stone  structures  of  Cruces,  besides  the  ware- 
houses, were  the  official  buildings  and  a  large  mon- 
astery with  a  church  attached.  The  monastery  was 
filled  with  friars  and  other  religious  persons,  and  the 
adjoining  sanatorium  with  white  women  who  came 
from  Nombre  de  Dios  to  be  delivered  of  their 
children.  Modern  Cruces  gives  little  evidence  of 
its  former  glory.  It  is  a  typical  nondescript  village 
of  Latin  America.  The  only  visible  remains  of  the 
one-time  religious  center  are  the  three  old  monastery 
bells,  which  until  recently  stood  in  the  open  on  a 
rudely  erected  standard  and  called  the  native  wor- 
shipers to  mass. 

"San  Lorenzo  guards  the  Chagres  entrance  still," 
sings  an  Isthmian  poet,  and  the  almost  literal  truth 
of  this  cannot  fail  to  impress  the  tourist  who  is  so 
fortunate  as  to  visit  the  well  preserved  battlements 
of  this  old  fort  at  the  summit  of  the  mighty  bluff 
which  commands  the  entrance  to  the  river.  One 
needs  but  to  see  it  to-day,  two  and  a  half  centuries 
after  its  fall,  to  appreciate  the  feeling  of  security 
which  the  custodians  of  the  king's  wealth  back  at 
Cruces  and  farther  back  on  the  old  highway  in 
Panama  itself,  must  have  had  in  the  knowledge  that 


188  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

enemies  of  Spain  must  first  pass  Lorenzo  to  gain  the 
river  valley,  the  only  easy  means  of  access  into  the 
country. 

Protected  seaward  by  submerged  rocks  and  off- 
shore sand  bars,  the  wall  of  natural  rock  rises  a 
sheer  one  hundred  feet  from  the  water,  both  ocean- 
ward  and  riverward.  From  the  land  side  it  was  made 
as  nearly  inaccessible  as  possible  by  an  elaborate 
system  of  moats.  At  the  crest  of  the  bluff  still 
stand  walls  of  masonry,  honeycombed  with  portholes. 
Inside  is  a  solid  causeway  for  cannon  and  passages 
which  lead  to  underground  dungeons.  Even  the 
old  well  is  hi  a  state  of  preservation  which  makes  it 
worth  seeing. 

The  castle  stood  on  the  seaward  one  of  two 
peaks,  the  one  to  the  landward  being  separated 
from  the  fort  by  a  thirty-foot  gully  and  connected 
by  a  drawbridge.  In  the  days  when  it  was  a  seat 
of  Spanish  strength,  the  masonry  of  the  fort  was  re- 
enforced  with  palisades  and  double  fences  of  plank. 
Inside  these  were  the  thatched  huts  of  the  soldiers. 
Just  below  the  fort,  where  the  river  bent  inland,  and 
a  little  above  where  the  present  native  village  stands, 
was  the  well  protected  port  of  Chagres. 

Aside  from  Fort  San  Lorenzo,  which  served  to 
protect  the  mouth  of  the  Chagres  River,  the  Atlantic 
termini  of  the  Isthmian  commercial  highway  were 
Nombre  de  Dios  and  Porto  Bello.  Of  these  two 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD  189 

great  shipping  ports  for  Spanish  wealth  on  the  At- 
lantic side,  Nombre  de  Dios  was  the  older.  Founded 
in  1510  by  Niqueza,  who  after  his  vessels  had  been 
storm  tossed  gave  the  place  its  name  by  declaring 
he  would  land  there  "in  the  name  of  God,"  Nombre 
de  Dios  was  never  more  than  a  makeshift  of  a  place. 
Even  in  Niqueza's  time  the  three  sediment  bearing 
streams  which  empty  into  its  bay  had  rendered  its 
harbor  a  poor  one. 

The  bay  was  shallow,  full  of  rocks,  and  open  to  the 
north  winds,  which  often  raised  gales  dangerous  to 
shipping.  During  the  two  centuries  that  the  place 
was  abandoned,  the  streams  carried  down  their  sands 
and  completely  covered  up  the  remains  of  the  old 
town.  When  the  Isthmian  Canal  Commission  re- 
vived Nombre  de  Dios  in  1908  by  making  it  the 
source  of  the  sand  supply  for  lock  and  dam  construc- 
tion, the  workmen  dug  up  the  hulks  of  two  vessels. 
Frequent  evidences  of  the  sixteenth  century  im- 
portance of  the  place  are  unearthed. 

Nombre  de  Dios  was  never  a  large  place.  A 
stretch  of  sandy  beach,  some  sixty  houses  about  a 
central  square  with  streets  crossing  at  right  angles  ; 
directly  back  of  this  the  tropical  jungle,  so  close  that 
the  jaguars  often  came  into  town  —  this  was  Nombre 
de  Dios,  according  to  descriptions  by  those  who  saw 
it  during  its  great  days.  The  town  was  unwalled, 
though  a  gate  stood  where  the  royal  road  from  Pan- 


190  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

ama  entered  it.  No  more  unhealthful  spot  could 
have  been  found  along  the  Isthmian  mainland.  The 
fever  raged  the  year  round.  The  mortality  among 
white  children  was  very  great.  For  this  reason 
they  were  taken  to  Cruces,  where  there  was  a  hospital 
and  where  the  children  were  left  until  they  had 
reached  six  years  of  age.  Then  they  were  thought 
old  enough  to  stand  the  Nombre  de  Dios  climate. 

But  if  Nombre  de  Dios  was  a  dull,  monotonous 
place  most  of  the  time,  for  one  month  it  was  lively 
enough.  Once  each  year  a  messenger  came  from 
Panama  with  news  that  the  plate  fleet  from  Peru  had 
arrived  there.  A  boat  was  immediately  dispatched 
to  Cartagena  where  the  big  fleet  of  Spanish  galleons 
lay  in  wait  to  carry  the  treasure  to  Spain.  By  the 
time  these  ships  hove  in  sight,  Nombre  de  Dios  was  a 
changed  place.  Lodgings  were  crowded,  tents  and 
booths  grew  up  in  the  plaza  and  in  the  streets.  The 
city  was  filled  with  merchants,  soldiers  and  pleasure 
seekers  arriving  in  a  constant  stream  from  Panama, 
along  with  the  mule  trains  of  rich  plate,  precious 
stones  and  vicuna  wool  which  came  over  the  royal 
road  to  the  tinkle  of  the  bells.  Until  the  merchants 
had  disposed  of  their  wares  to  the  outgoing  galleons  a 
typical  fair  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  on.  As  soon  as 
the  ships  weighed  anchor,  Nombre  de  Dios  was  again 
almost  depopulated. 

Porto  Bello,  whose  site  was  the  first  " firm-land" 


THE   ROYAL  ROAD  191 

along  the  Isthmian  seaboard  discovered  by  Columbus 
and  •  Bastidas,  became  the  great  Atlantic  terminus 
of  the  road  in  1584,  when  a  royal  mandate  was  issued 
making  it  supersede  Nombre  de  Dios  on  account  of 
its  superior  harbor.  It  was  not  until  almost  the  close 
of  the  century,  however,  that  Nombre  de  Dios  actually 
surrendered  her  glory  to  the  new  port,  the  delay 
being  caused  by  the  necessity  of  a  change  in  the 
royal  road,  which  meant  the  making  of  a  new  trail 
across  the  jungle  between  Cruces  and  Porto  Bello. 

The  old  town  of  Porto  Bello  stood  on  the  south- 
eastern side  of  what  is  perhaps  the  best  natural 
harbor  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard  of  the  American 
Isthmus.  Its  superiority  over  the  harbor  at  Colon 
is  in  evidence  every  "dry  season,"  when  to  escape 
the  terrific  "northers"  the  vessels  lying  at  anchor 
in  Limon  Bay  scurry  to  Porto  Bello  for  safety.  The 
shape  of  the  harbor  made  the  place  easy  to  fortify, 
a  fact  which  was  taken  advantage  of  by  the  Spaniards. 
On  the  western  side  of  the  harbor,  a  mile  and  a  half 
across  the  bay  from  the  town,  stood  Iron  Castle,  on  an 
immense  bluff.  If  ships  sought  to  escape  its  fire  by 
standing  away  toward  the  town  on  the  opposite 
side,  they  were  exposed  to  the  guns  of  Castle  Gloria 
and  Fort  Jeronimo. 

Gloria,  with  its  broad  expanse  on  the  water  front 
and  its  upper  and  lower  batteries,  guarded  the  en- 
trance to  the  city  proper,  while  Jeronimo  stood  on  a 


192  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

sand  bank  off  Guinea  town,  that  part  of  the  city  in- 
habited by  slaves  and  negroes.  All  three  of  these  old 
forts,  though  crumbling  masses  of  ruin  to-day,  are 
well  preserved  in  certain  parts,  and  form  an  interest- 
ing modern  commentary  on  the  greatness  of  this  city 
in  the  seventeenth  century. 

We  must  draw  our  picture  of  old  Porto  Bello 
from  the  scanty  descriptions  left  by  various  buc- 
caneers who  sacked  the  place  from  time  to  time. 
The  town  nestled  on  a  strip  of  narrow  plain  on  the 
southern  shore  of  the  harbor,  the  hills  rising  most 
abruptly  on  all  other  sides.  Indeed,  the  town  was 
in  a  valley  made  pestilential  by  the  vapors  which 
poured  down  upon  it  from  the  surrounding  moun- 
tains. The  intense  heat  was  not  even  relieved  by 
the  rainfall  which  deluges  the  place  in  the  rainy 
season.  It  always  gets  more  than  its  share  of  water 
during  the  wet  period,  a  record  of  ten  inches  in  one 
day  being  the  high  watermark  there  during  Decem- 
ber of  1908. 

Porto  Bello  was  a  much  more  pretentious  place 
than  Nombre  de  Dios.  In  the  western  part  of  the 
city  were  stately  stone  churches,  merchants'  dwell- 
ings of  fine  cedar,  the  stone  palace  of  the  lieutenant 
general,  a  stone  convent  and  a  hospital.  A  great 
shipping  port,  the  city  centered  its  activities  along 
the  quay  and  the  stone  customhouse,  past  which  and 
fronting  on  the  bay  ran  the  main  street.  From  this 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD  195 

ran  the  resident  cross  streets,  leading  to  the  two 
squares  or  plazas,  on  one  of  which  faced  the  lieuten- 
ant general's  establishment.  There  were  perhaps 
one  hundred  fifty  buildings  in  this  part  of  the  town. 
To  the  east,  and  separated  from  the  aristocratic 
section  by  a  small  river,  lay  Guinea  town.  Like 
Nombre  de  Dios,  Porto  Bello's  population  increased 
tenfold  once  each  year  when  the  mule  trains  arrived 
from  Panama. 

Modern  Porto  Bello  occupies  the  slope  of  that  bluff 
where  old  Iron  Castle  once  kept  a  stern  vigil  against 
pirates  who  might  come  to  despoil  the  city  across  the 
bay.  Its  battlements  no  longer  resound  with  can- 
nonading, but  with  the  booming  of  dynamite  charges 
which  tear  loose  the  rocky  steeps  used  in  building 
the  masonry  of  the  Panama  Canal.  A  modern  rock- 
crushing  plant  occupies  the  hillside,  while  the  ravine 
which  one  day  furnished  access  to  the  old  fort,  is 
dotted  with  the  trim  cottages  of  an  American  Canal 
Zone  village.  Across  the  bay,  about  the  ruins  of 
the  former  city,  are  scattered  the  huts  of  a  native 
village  whose  inhabitants  little  dream  of  the  glory 
which  once  lay  about  them. 


CHAPTER  IV 

SIR  FRANCIS  DRAKE 

ANY  account  of  Spain's  glory  in  her  Isthmian 
ports  of  the  sixteenth  century  would  be  incomplete 
without  the  romantic  tales  of  the  English  pirates 
who,  long  before  Spain  had  reached  the  culmination 
of  her  golden  era  in  the  western  hemisphere,  became 
a  menace  to  the  rich  galleons  throughout  the  Spanish 
Main  and  to  the  wealth  laden  mule  trains  of  the 
Isthmus.  Beginning  with  Sir  Francis  Drake,  we  find 
a  galaxy  of  brilliant  adventurers  whose  bravery, 
quaint  ideas  of  honor  and  personal  honesty  partly 
compensate  for  the  evil  of  their  calling.  A  good 
half  dozen  of  the  greatest  ones,  who  followed  in  Sir 
Francis'  footsteps  —  Parker,  Morgan,  Sharp,  Ring- 
rose,  Wafer  and  Dampier  —  found  the  Isthmus  the 
logical  place  for  their  principal  operations. 

While  we  cannot  reconcile  the  careers  of  these 
knights  of  the  mast  and  of  the  tropical  Main  with 
our  modern  standard  of  ethics,  in  all  fairness  to 
them  it  must  be  said  that  Spain  brought  much  of 
their  ravaging  upon  herself.  Having  settled  at 
Santo  Domingo  in  Haiti  and  in  other  ports  of  the 
West  Indies,  driving  the  Indians  to  the  interior  or 

196 


THK    PANAMA    THKK 


It  was  from  this  tree  that  the  Isth- 
mus of  Panama  received  its  name. 


SIR  FRANCIS  DRAKE  199 

killing  them  off,  as  best  suited  her  convenience, 
Spain  had  become  firmly  established,  and  regarded 
the  country  as  her  own.  Accordingly  she  resented 
the  peaceful  visits  of  English,  Dutch  or  French 
traders  who  came  on  some  mission  of  commerce. 
This  resentment  grew  into  open  hostility,  and  even- 
tually into  a  state  of  war,  which  continued  vigorously 
for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years.  Treaties  of  peace 
between  the  mother  countries  did  not  serve  to  lessen 
this  enmity.  A  Spanish  port  or  a  Spanish  galleon 
was  considered  legitimate  prey  by  the  rovers,  while 
the  rovers  themselves,  on  a  mission  peaceful  or 
piratical,  were  never  safe  from  the  Spaniards  un- 
less they  came  in  overwhelming  numbers. 

The  English  achieved  distinction  as  special  objects 
of  Spanish  hatred,  partly  because  of  the  sixteenth 
century  strife  between  Spain  and  England,  but 
largely  because  the  English  came  in  greater  numbers 
than  did  the  French  and  the  Dutch  adventurers. 
From  this  state  of  semilegitimate  warfare,  it  was  but 
a  step  to  the  buccaneering  which  Drake  and  his 
followers  openly  pursued,  winked  at,  if  not  licensed, 
by  the  home  government. 

In  1563  Francis  Drake,  then  a  lad  of  eighteen, 
made  a  trading  trip  to  the  Spanish  Main  with  his 
cousin,  Sir  John  Hawkins.  Forced  to  put  in  at 
Vera  Cruz  on  account  of  a  storm,  the  English  had 
no  sooner  arrived  than  a  Spanish  squadron  hove  in 


200  THE   STORY  OF   PANAMA 

sight.  Fearing  that  they  would  be  treated  as  pirates, 
Hawkins  made  plans  to  prevent  the  Spaniards  from 
entering  the  harbor,  and  he  might  have  been  able 
to  carry  out  his  plans.  The  Spanish,  however, 
insisted  that  they  meant  no  harm.  Finally  they 
were  allowed  to  enter,  and  then  they  treacherously 
attacked  the  English.  Of  the  English  fleet  only 
two  ships  escaped,  on  one  of  which  was  Drake. 
This  event  Drake  always  gave  as  his  reason  for  a 
lifelong  hatred  of  the  Spaniards.  If,  as  it  is  claimed, 
Drake  recorded  an  oath  on  this  occasion  to  make  the 
Spaniards  "rue  the  day,"  he  certainly  made  them 
rue  it  during  the  subsequent  quarter  of  a  century  in 
which  he  was  a  terror  to  every  Spanish  garrison 
from  Trinidad  to  Campeche. 

In  1572  Drake  set  out  for  the  Spanish  Main  with 
two  well  equipped  ships  and  seventy- three  men.  He 
was  not  only  provisioned  for  a  long  stay,  but  well 
supplied  with  all  the  necessities  for  a  freebooting 
expedition.  It  was  characteristic  of  him  that  he 
should  go  prepared  for  emergencies.  Information 
gained  on  previous  voyages  directed  him  to  a  secret 
haven  along  the  Spanish  Main  from  which  he  could 
work  out  what  was  perhaps  the  greatest  Isthmian 
raid.  The  sack  of  Nombre  de  Dios,  and  the  capture 
of  the  rich  plate  which  was  to  go  via  mule  train  across 
the  Isthmus  to  be  unloaded  on  ships  for  Spain,  were 
Drake's  two  objects. 


SIR  FRANCIS  DRAKE  201 

About  three  o'clock  one  morning  in  the  summer  of 
1572,  Drake  and  his  men,  most  of  them  youngsters, 
put  into  the  harbor  at  Nombre  in  four  small  boats. 
Landing  without  accident,  they  spiked  the  few  bat- 
teries of  the  place,  and  before  the  townspeople  knew 
what  was  happening,  had  attacked  Nombre  de  Dios 
and  secured  positions  of  vantage.  Drake  charged, 
the  Spaniards  fled  pell-mell,  and  the  pirates  gathered 
at  the  governor's  palace  to  seize  the  plate  stored 
there  and  to  break  into  the  treasure  house  rilled  with 
precious  pearls  and  gold.  But  all  this  took  time, 
and  Drake's  men,  being  inexperienced,  were  almost 
as  much  confused  by  the  novelty  of  it  all  as  were  the 
Spaniards.  Then  came  a  typical  Nombre  de  Dios 
shower.  It  deluged  everything,  and  considerably 
dampened  the  ardor  of  the  English.  Suddenly  it 
was  discovered  that  Drake  was  injured,  and  the 
pirates,  now  nearly  in  a  panic,  retreated  to  their 
boats  with  only  a  small  part  of  the  booty  they  could 
have  captured. 

Undismayed  by  this  near-failure,  Drake  deter- 
mined to  make  good  the  purpose  of  his  expedition 
by  capturing  the  Spanish  plate  on  its  way  across  the 
Royal  Road.  The  plan  was  to  go  up  the  Chagres 
River  to  Cruces  and  waylay  the  treasure  caravans 
en  route  from  Panama  to  Nombre  de  Dios.  This 
treasure,  the  annual  shipment  from  Peru,  was  due 
to  go  over  the  Isthmian  route  about  the  first  of  the 


202  THE   STORY   OF  PANAMA 

year,  1573.  Becoming  friendly  with  the  Maroon 
Indians,  Drake  and  his  party  made  the  trip  to  Cruces 
without  incident.  Accounts  of  this  trip  contrast 
strangely  with  the  story  Esquemeling  tells  of  the 
hardships  which  Morgan's  expedition  underwent  a 
century  later.  Drake,  however,  had  certain  advan- 
tages, chief  of  which  was  that  he  was  stealing  up  the 
river  valley  unmolested  by  hostile  natives. 

Getting  beyond  Cruces  and  almost  within  sight  of 
the  rolling  savannas  of  Panama  city,  Drake  and  his 
party  awaited  the  treasure  train.  They  even  sent 
a  spy  into  the  city  to  learn  the  time  the  caravan 
was  to  start.  But  the  indiscretion  of  a  member  of 
the  Drake  party  spoiled  all  the  well  laid  plans.  He 
allowed  himself  to  be  seen  by  a  Spanish  horseman 
who,  becoming  suspicious,  advised  a  ruse.  The  ex- 
periment of  changing  the  order  of  the  mules  was  made. 
Instead  of  sending  in  front  the  fourteen  mules  that 
were  loaded  with  gold  and  jewels,  they  were  shifted 
far  to  the  rear,  while  the  beasts  that  bore  unimpor- 
tant baggage  were  sent  ahead. 

The  English  fell  upon  the  caravan  when  it  first 
reached  their  ambush.  This  gave  ample  time  for 
the  rest  of  the  caravan  to  make  a  safe  retreat  into 
Panama  with  the  precious  cargo.  When  the  pande- 
monium following  the  sudden  attack  had  subsided 
and  the  pirates  had  time  to  realize  their  mistake, 
they  fell  back  upon  Cruces  and  attacked  it.  But 


SIR  FRANCIS  DRAKE  203 

the  warehouses  of  the  place  were  almost  empty  and 
Drake  got  little  out  of  the  raid. 

Disappointed  again  when  untold  wealth  seemed 
almost  within  his  grasp,  Drake  became  desperate 
in  his  desire  to  make  his  expedition  a  success.  The 
treasure  caravan  had  yet  to  make  the  trip  across  the 
Isthmus,  and  the  only  thing  left  was  to  waylay  it. 
Retreating  from  the  Isthmus,  Drake  was  successful, 
with  the  help  of  the  Indians,  in  making  it  appear  that 
he  had  left  the  Spanish  Main  for  good. 

Accepting  as  a  partner  Captain  Tetu,  a  French 
pirate  with  twenty  men,  Drake  with  his  own 
diminished  force  of  thirty  sneaked  back  into  the 
Isthmus  by  way  of  the  Francisco  River.  It  was  a 
long  way  to  Nombre  de  Dios,  but  the  adventurers 
managed  to  creep  up  unnoticed  until  they  were  almost 
within  hailing  distance  of  the  town.  They  were  just 
hi  time,  for  the  mule  trains  were  now  coming  along 
with  bells  tinkling;  and  their  guardians  had  no 
thought  of  danger.  With  a  sudden  swoop,  Drake's 
force  fell  upon  the  richly  laden  caravan.  The  thirty 
Spanish  foot  soldiers  were  overcome  and  the  bulk  of 
the  treasure  captured. 

How  much  wealth  the  pirates  took  on  this  raid  is 
not  known,  but  an  old  chronicler  puts  it  at  "  thirty 
tons  of  silver."  In  addition  there  were  precious 
jewels  and  much  gold.  It  would  be  safe,  perhaps, 
to  estimate  the  value  of  the  booty  at  one  hundred 


204  THE    STORY   OF   PANAMA 

thousand  dollars.  Of  course,  they  could  not  carry 
it  all  away,  and  much  of  it  was  buried,  as  it  was 
necessary  to  beat  a  hasty  retreat  before  the  Spaniards 
could  recover. 

The  sheer  audacity  of  Drake's  successful  attempt 
is  evident  when  it  is  remembered  that  he  had  scarcely 
more  than  half  a  hundred  men  and  was  many  miles 
from  his  base.  Captain  Tetu,  the  French  pirate, 
had  been  wounded,  and  it  was  necessary  to  leave  him 
behind  in  the  forest  with  two  comrades  to  guard  him. 
One  of  the  men  later  escaped  to  tell  a  horrible  story 
of  how  the  Spaniards  had  captured  them  and  had 
slain  his  two  companions. 

By  the  middle  of  the  summer  of  1573  Drake, 
with  his  two  vessels  heavy  laden  with  spoils,  was 
back  in  England.  It  was  by  no  means  his  last  voyage 
against  the  Spanish.  He  raided  Nombre  de  Dios 
again  in  1595,  burning  the  town.  It  was  at  Nombre 
de  Dios  that  Drake  contracted  the  flux  of  which  he 
died.  Off  the  harbor  at  Porto  Bello,  which  he  sacked 
in  1595,  following  his  final  raid  at  Nombre  de  Dios, 
the  old  Admiral's  body  was  lowered  to  rest  in  Davy 
Jones's  locker,  which  has  served  as  the  tomb  for  so 
many  adventurers  of  the  Spanish  Main. 


CHAPTER  V 

MORGAN'S   ISTHMIAN  RAIDS 

IF  the  Spaniards  had  cause  to  fear  Sir  Francis 
Drake  during  his  activity  along  the  Spanish  Main, 
they  also  had  occasion  to  recall  him  and  to  heap  im- 
precations upon  his  memory  during  the  century  fol- 
lowing his  death.  The  success  of  his  raids  opened 
up  new  roads  to  power  and  to  wealth  for  many  an 
adventurous  English  sea-dog.  For  a  century  after 
Drake,  preying  upon  Spanish  commerce  and  Spanish 
ports  in  the  New  World  became  a  recognized  oc- 
cupation. 

The  hazardous  features  of  the  life  were  offset 
by  the  prospect  of  enormous  gain,  while  the  adven- 
ture itself  held  strong  attraction  for  the  roving 
spirits  of  that  day. 

The  term  "  buccaneer "  was  brought  into  the  Eng- 
lish language  by  these  terrors  of  Spanish  America. 
Leading  a  rough  life  when  ashore,  the  pirates  "bou- 
canned"  their  meat  after  the  manner  of  the  Indians 
along  the  coast  of  Brazil ;  that  is,  they  cured  their 
fresh  meat  by  placing  it  on  a  grating  above  their 
camp  fires,  smoking  it  with  the  fumes  of  burning 

205 


206  THE   STOKY   OF   PANAMA 

green  sticks.  They  ate  the  meat,  thus  cured,  with- 
out further  cooking. 

The  ports  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  were  never 
free  from  danger  during  the  hundred  and  fifty  years 
when  the  pirates  were  operating  in  the  New  World. 
The  menace  became  so  great  that  for  a  time  the 
Royal  Road  from  Panama  to  Nombre  de  Dios  and 
Porto  Bello  was  almost  abandoned,  the  vast  wealth 
of  Peru  finding  its  way  to  Spain  via  the  Strait  of 
Magellan.  But  in  1579,  Drake  made  his  memorable 
voyage  around  the  Horn  and  wrought  such  havoc 
upon  Spanish  galleons  that  commerce  once  more 
shifted  to  the  Isthmian  route  as  the  less  dangerous. 

Of  all  the  pirates  who  visited  the  Isthmus  on 
missions  of  pillage  after  Drake's  time,  Henry  Mor- 
gan is  perhaps  best  known,  partly  because  of  the 
devastation  he  wrought  and  partly  because  of  the 
interesting  and  detailed  account  which  Esquemel- 
ing  has  left  us.  Morgan  was  a  Welshman  without 
means.  In  1665  he  joined  with  Mansvelt,  a  pirate 
of  Dutch  extraction,  to  colonize  the  island  of  Santa 
Katalina  off  the  Nicaraguan  coast  as  a  rendezvous 
for  buccaneers.  Mansvelt  died  without  completing 
the  project,  and  the  island  was  captured  by  a  Spanish 
expedition  under  the  governor  of  Panama.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  the  English  prisoners  seized 
at  the  capture  were  taken  to  Porto  Bello,  where  they 
were  set  to  work  in  constructing  Iron  Castle,  one  of 


MORGAN'S  ISTHMIAN  RAIDS  207 

the  strongholds  which  Morgan  captured  a  few  years 
later. 

Morgan  was  in  Jamaica  at  the  time  Santa  Kata- 
lina  fell  and  was  not  seriously  handicapped  by  its 
loss.  Indeed,  he  had  gained  so  much  prestige  by 
his  alliance  with  Mansvelt  that  shortly  afterward 
he  was  able  to  lead  a  piratical  expedition  of  twelve 
ships  and  seven  hundred  men,  English  and  French, 
against  the  town  of  Puerto  del  Principe  in  Cuba. 
This  was  in  1665,  ten  years  after  Jamaica  was  seized 
by  the  English.  The  fact  that  the  island  now  belonged 
to  England  meant  much  to  Morgan  and  to  subse- 
quent freebooters.  Unlike  Drake,  they  were  never 
too  far  from  an  operating  base,  and  if  it  became  neces- 
sary to  have  a  show  of  authority  for  their  operations, 
they  could  generally  get  a  commission  from  the 
governor  of  Jamaica.  It  was  on  the  pretense  that 
the  Spanish  were  intending  to  attack  the  island  that 
Morgan  now  planned  his  raid  against  Porto  Bello. 

It  was  only  four  years  less  than  a  century  after 
Drake's  famous  voyage  against  the  Atlantic  ports 
of  the  Isthmian  trade-route,  when  Morgan  set  out 
with  a  fleet  of  nine  sail  and  four  hundred  sixty  mili- 
tary men  to  plunder  Porto  Bello.  This  was  no  small 
undertaking,  to  go  against  such  a  stronghold,  nestled 
securely  in  its  fort-girdled  harbor,  well  garrisoned 
and  only  sixty  miles  from  Panama,  where  there  was 
a  larger  force. 


208  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

Esquemeling  tells  the  story  of  the  sack  of  Porto 
Bello  in  form  as  accurate  as  we  are  able  to  get  it. 
He  was  himself  a  pirate,  probably  Dutch;  he  was 
on  the  Morgan  raids  of  1668-1671,  and  he  wrote  his 
account  seven  years  after.  The  pirates,  according 
to  Esquemeling,  anchored  their  ships  about  ten 
leagues  from  the  city,  and  then  entered  small  boats. 
Going  ashore  some  tune  after  midnight,  they  came 
upon  the  outermost  sentry,  whom  they  bound  se- 
curely, and  plied  with  questions  as  to  the  strength 
of  the  garrison.  Advancing  toward  the  city  the 
buccaneers  came  to  an  outlying  castle,  which  they 
surrounded,  and  made  demands  for  a  quiet  surrender. 
But  the  garrison  opened  fire,  arousing  the  whole 
town. 

The  fort  was  easily  taken.  Morgan,  perhaps 
incensed  because  it  had  not  surrendered  quietly, 
allowed  his  men  to  blow  up  the  fort  with  all  the 
Spaniards  therein,  after  they  had  been  assembled 
in  one  room  for  that  purpose.  By  this  time  all 
Porto  Bello  was  in  an  uproar.  Soldiers  hurried  to 
the  guns  and  battlements,  excited  citizens  rushed 
to  places  of  protection,  pausing  to  cast  their  money 
and  jewels  into  cisterns  and  wells.  The  governor 
was  unable,  because  of  the  confusion,  to  rally  his 
people,  and  so  retired  to  one  of  the  castles  and  began 
a  steady  fire  on  the  pirates. 

From  this  time  on  the  battle  was  in  deadly  earnest 


MORGAN'S  ISTHMIAN  RAIDS  209 

and  lasted  from  break  of  day  until  noon.  The  at- 
tack centered  about  the  castle  in  which  the  governor 
had  taken  his  stand.  Attempts  to  burn  it  were 
frustrated  by  the  Spaniards,  who  threw  down  pots  of 
burning  metal  upon  the  pirates.  Attempts  at  scal- 
ing the  walls  were  equally  futile  until  Morgan  adopted 
a  most  inhuman  trick.  Early  in  the  struggle  a 
number  of  nuns  and  friars  had  been  seized.  Hastily 
constructing  some  scaling  ladders,  Morgan's  men 
forced  these  religious  people  to  place  them  on  the 
walls,  expecting  that  the  governor  would  not  fire  on 
his  own  people.  He  was  mistaken,  however,  for  the 
poor  souls,  while  pushed  forward  by  the  pirates  to 
place  the  ladders,  were  fired  upon  by  their  own  peo- 
ple. They  "sent  their  wails  heavenward  and  died 
agonizing  deaths."  The  scheme  was  successful. 
With  the  ladders  so  placed  it  was  possible  for  the 
pirates  to  capture  the  castle,  which  meant  the  fall 
of  the  city.  The  bravery  of  the  governor  is  extolled 
by  Esquemeling,  who  says  that  he  refused  quarter 
and  died  defending  the  fort,  despite  the  pleadings  of 
his  wife  and  his  daughter.  For  fifteen  days  the 
pirates  stayed  at  Porto  Bello,  sacking,  reveling  and 
engaging  in  all  manner  of  excesses.  Then  Morgan 
demanded  and  received  from  the  citizens  a  ransom  of 
$125,000.  The  governor  of  Panama  sent  a  small 
company  of  soldiers  to  the  aid  of  Porto  Bello,  but 
they  were  driven  back  by  the  pirates  at  a  pass  out- 


210  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

side  the  city.  After  that  the  Panama  executive 
left  the  place  to  its  fate. 

The  sack  of  Porto  Bello  completed,  Morgan  re- 
turned to  the  West  Indies  to  live  in  rioting  and 
debauchery.  The  wealth  the  pirates  had  seized  did 
not  last  ^long,  however,  and  inside  two  years  Mor- 
gan found  it  necessary  to  get  up  another  expedition. 
The  success  of  his  Porto  Bello  raid  had  given  him 
a  reputation,  so  he  did  not  have  to  call  twice  for 
volunteers.  Indeed,  pirates  from  all  over  the 
Indies  flocked  to  the  Isle  of  Tortuga,  which  he  had 
appointed  as  a  rendezvous.  Here,  on  October  24, 
1670,  Morgan  was  made  admiral  of  an  enormous  ex- 
pedition and  drew  up  the  terms  of  contract  for  one 
of  the  biggest  raids  ever  attempted.  There  were 
thirty-seven  ships  and  two  thousand  pirates. 

At  the  head  of  such  a  force,  Morgan  was  no  longer  a 
freebooting  pirate  without  means  or  influence.  He 
carried  letters  from  the  Jamaican  government  and 
gave  his  expedition  the  formality  of  legal  sanction  by 
furnishing  each  of  his  captains  with  letters  which 
permitted  them  to  capture  any  Spanish  vessels  on 
the  high  seas  or  to  go  against  any  Spanish  port.  In 
fact,  some  English  writers  choose  to  consider  him 
the  saviour  of  the  English  West  Indies  at  this  time. 
Morgan's  position  is  in  strong  contrast  with  his 
position  in  the  Porto  Bello  raid. 

At  the  conference  in  Tortuga  three  places  were 


MORGAN'S  ISTHMIAN  RAIDS  211 

discussed  as  objective  points  for  the  raid  —  Vera 
Cruz,"  Cartagena  and  Old  Panama.  The  last  men- 
tioned was  finally  chosen.  On  its  way  to  the  Isthmus 
the  Morgan  expedition  stopped  at  the  island  of 
Santa  Katalina  which  Mansvelt  had  planned  to  make 
a  piratical  stronghold  a  few  years  before.  The 
place  was  now  in  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards,  but 
with  little  difficulty  Morgan's  men  captured  it  —  the 
Spanish  governor  making  a  deal  to  surrender  after 
a  make-believe  attack  and  defense  which  were  ar- 
ranged to  deceive  the  Spanish  governor  at  Panama. 
While  the  bulk  of  Morgan's  expedition  tarried  at  this 
island,  Captain  Brodley,  one  of  his  lieutenants,  with 
four  ships  and  four  hundred  men,  set  out  to  take 
Fort  San  Lorenzo  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chagres  River. 

It  was  a  small  expedition  for  so  large  an  under- 
taking, and  the  wonder  is  how  they  ever  managed  to 
take  that  great  natural  stronghold.  Morgan  must 
have  had  great  confidence  in  Brodley's  ability,  for 
Esquemeling  says  the  expedition  was  "no  larger 
lest  the  Spaniards  should  become  aware  of  the  later 
designs  upon  Panama."  Had  Brodley  failed,  the 
great  raid  against  Panama  would  have  been  well- 
nigh  impossible. 

On  the  seaward  side  of  Castle  Chagre,  or  Fort 
San  Lorenzo,  is  a  ravine  which  separates  the  natural 
bluff  of  Lorenzo  from  the  hill  opposite.  This  ravine 
is  about  sixty  feet  deep  and  is  the  valley  of  a  little 


212  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

stream  which  here  trickles  into  the  small  bay  at  the 
east  of  the  fort.  It  was  on  to  this  barren  slope  op- 
posite Fort  Lorenzo  that  Captain  Brodley  and  his 
men  suddenly  pounced  one  afternoon.  They  had 
secreted  their  vessels  down  shore  and  crept  upon  the 
fort  through  the  mangrove  swamps. 

Despite  their  attempts  at  surprise,  the  Spanish 
garrison  was  ready,  and  with  cries  of  "Come  on,  you 
English  heretics ;  you  shall  not  get  to  Panama  this 
bout,"  the  Spaniards  met  the  first  charge  of  the 
pirates  with  a  terrific  fire.  The  stubborn  defense 
compelled  the  English  to  retire  into  the  jungle  and 
to  await  the  passing  of  daylight.  Then  the  pirates 
renewed  their  attack;  again  and  again  Brodley's 
men  rushed  across  the  ravine  under  a  withering  fire 
from  the  fort.  Almost  a  fourth  of  the  pirates  were 
dead  and  no  headway  had  been  made  toward  the 
capture  of  Chagre. 

Finally,  so  the  story  goes,  a  pirate  running  across 
the  ravine  in  a  stooping  posture  was  struck  in  the 
back  with  an  arrow.  Drawing  it  out,  he  wrapped 
its  shaft  with  cotton  for  a  wad,  and  placing  it  in  his 
musket,  shot  it  back  over  the  wooden  palings  which 
formed  the  palisades  of  the  fort.  The  cotton  had 
ignited  from  the  discharge  of  the  gun.  By  the 
merest  chance  the  blazing  arrow  struck  in  the  vicinity 
of  a  palm  thatch  close  to  a  powder  magazine.  Un- 
noticed by  the  Spaniards,  the  fire  gained  headway, 


MORGAN'S  ISTHMIAN  RAIDS  215 

until  a  terrific  explosion  brought  the  garrison  running 
to  the  scene.  Thus  the  guns  guarding  the  palisades 
were  left  unmanned  and  the  pirates  were  able  to  set 
fire  to  the  rows  of  wooden  palings.  The  English  then 
retired  to  the  woods  to  watch  the  palisades  burn. 
When  the  fire  abated,  the  pirates  saw  that  a  perfect 
slope  of  earth  ran  from  the  bottom  of  the  ravine  to 
the  top  of  the  outer  walls ;  by  rushing  up  that  slope 
they  could  reach  the  inside  of  the  fort. 

Until  morning  Brodley's  men  contented  them- 
selves with  picking  off  Spanish  soldiers  who  were 
exposed  in  the  bright  light  of  the  blazing  fort.  The 
second  day  dawned  with  everything  in  favor  of  the 
English,  but  the  brave  Spanish  garrison  had  not  given 
up.  Just  as  if  the  walls  still  protected  them,  the 
garrison  maintained  a  steady  fire  from  the  guns. 
But  by  noon  the  vigor  of  the  English  attack  began  to 
tell;  the  last  stand  had  been  made  at  the  inner 
castle  on  the  top  of  the  fort ;  the  governor  had  been 
killed ;  all  but  forty  of  the  garrison  of  three  hundred 
and  fourteen  were  dead ;  the  pirates  had  lost  more 
than  a  hundred  killed  and  seventy  wounded.  Of 
the  mere  handful  of  Spaniards  left  alive,  some  eight 
or  ten  had  slipped  away  to  carry  the  news  of 
English  success  up  the  Chagres  River  to  Panama. 

A  few  days  later  Morgan's  main  force  from  Santa 
Katalina  hove  in  sight  of  Fort  San  Lorenzo.  It  is 
said  that  when  the  pirate  fleet  saw  the  English  colors, 


216  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

their  joy  was  so  great  that  the  crews  of  four  of  the 
ships  allowed  their  vessels  to  drift  on  to  the  reef  which 
runs  out  from  the  opposite  bank  of  the  river.  A 
storm  came  up  and  the  four  ships  were  beaten  to  pieces 
on  the  coral  beach.  Most  of  their  cargo  was  saved, 
however,  and  plans  went  on  apace  for  the  trip  up  the 
Chagres  to  Panama.  Morgan  rebuilt  Fort  Lorenzo, 
repaired  the  palisades,  rethatched  the  huts,  and  left 
a  garrison  of  five  hundred  pirates  to  hold  the  place 
as  a  base  of  operations  while,  with  twelve  hundred 
men,  he  started  out  on  his  memorable  trip  across  the 
Isthmus.  The  start  was  made  on  January  18,  1671. 

Of  the  hardships  of  this  ten-day  march  across  the 
Isthmus,  Esquemeling  has  left  us  a  graphic  account. 
The  pirates  were  unable  to  carry  provisions,  and 
since  the  Spaniards  and  Indians  had  devastated  the 
country  before  them  and  had  destroyed  every  source 
of  food  supply  in  sight,  the  English  suffered  the  ex- 
treme of  hunger  and  of  thirst.  A  tropical  jungle  is 
repellent  to  human  beings.  How  much  of  a  death 
trap  it  must  have  seemed  to  the  pirates,  who  stumbled 
ahead  with  the  knowledge  that  hostile  eyes  might  be 
peering  at  them  from  every  bit  of  foliage  and  that  the 
inhabitants  of  the  country,  both  white  men  and  red, 
considered  them  enemies  whose  death  by  starvation 
would  be  almost  too  easy  a  fate  ! 

In  a  vivid  picture  Esquemeling  convinces  us  that 
these  ten  days  were  days  of  terrible  hardship.  "The 


MORGAN'S  ISTHMIAN  RAIDS  217 

Spaniards,  being  every  one  fled  and  leaving  nothing  be- 
hind them  unless  it  was  a  small  number  of  leather  bags, 
our  hunger  grew  so  sharp  that  it  did  gnaw  our  very 
bowels."  On  the  fifth  day  the  pirates  reached  Barba- 
coas,  on  the  seventh  day  Cruces  and  on  the  ninth  they 
were  fortunate  enough  to  find  some  bread  and  wine  in 
the  storehouses  belonging  to  the  king.  Most  of  them 
fell  sick  after  eating  and  believed  themselves  poisoned. 
However,  it  was  only  the  natural  sickness  following 
excess  in  eating  after  a  forced  period  of  fasting. 

Coming  upon  the  rolling  green  savannas  before  the 
royal  city  of  Panama,  the  pirates  saw  a  sudden  end 
to  their  days  of  hunger.  Without  stopping  to  con- 
template the  beautiful  picture  of  Old  Panama  nestled 
in  her  peaceful  bay,  they  fell  upon  the  grazing  asses, 
cattle,  and  horses  and  satisfied  their  gnawing  ap- 
petites. On  the  tenth  day  the  buccaneers  advanced 
toward  Panama,  whose  possession  was  to  be  dis- 
puted with  the  flower  of  Spanish  chivalry,  consisting 
of  four  hundred  horse  and  twenty-four  hundred  foot 
soldiers.  In  addition,  the  Spanish  force  included 
sixty  Indians  and  negroes,  who  were  to  drive  two 
thousand  wild  bulls  into  the  English  camp.  This, 
according  to  Esquemeling,  was  the  formidable  force 
which  the  Spanish  were  able  to  line  up  against  the 
tired  buccaneers.  The  governor  of  Panama  puts 
the  number  of  foot  soldiers  at  fourteen  hundred  and 
the  horse  at  two  hundred. 


CHAPTER  VI 

PANAMA  AND  THE  PIRATES 

CERTAINLY  the  Spaniards  were  equal  to  the  pirates 
in  point  of  numbers  and  they  had  the  added  advan- 
tage of  being  on  the  defensive  and  of  being  near  their 
base.  However,  instead  of  making  the  pirates  do 
the  attacking  —  which  in  their  desperate  state  they 
would  have  been  forced  to  do  —  the  four  hundred 
Spanish  horse  wheeled  into  battle  and  charged  across 
a  boggy  field.  Then,  just  as  their  English  forbears 
had  done  when  the  French  charged  at  Agincourt,  the 
buccaneers  put  one  knee  to  the  ground  and  poured 
deadly  volleys  into  the  floundering  horse.  The 
rain  of  bullets  on  the  savannas  of  Panama  had  the 
same  effect  as  the  shower  of  arrows  at  Agincourt. 
In  two  hours'  time  the  Spanish  attack  had  become 
a  rout.  The  foot  soldiers  had  been  no  more  success- 
ful than  those  on  horse,  while  the  two  thousand  wild 
bulls  became  frightened  with  the  noise  of  battle  and 
ran  away. 

The  pirates  were  too  exhausted  to  follow  the  flee- 
ing Spaniards,  who  sought  refuge  in  the  jungle  which 
bordered  the  savannas.  After  a  rest  the  buccaneers 

218 


PANAMA   AND   THE   PIRATES  219 

marched  on  the  city,  the  way  to  which  was  now  open. 
Some  effort  at  defending  it  was  made,  so  there  were 
three  hours  of  fighting  before  the  whole  place  lay 
at  the  mercy  of  Morgan.  A  detachment  of  pirates 
was  dispatched  to  round  up  the  citizens  in  hiding. 
They  brought  in  two  hundred  prisoners  who  were 
tortured  into  revealing  the  whereabouts  of  their  treas- 
ure. In  marked  contrast  to  their  wild  excesses  at 
Porto  Bello,  the  buccaneers  remained  sober  and  went 
about  their  pillage  and  robbery  in  a  very  business- 
like manner.  Esquemeling  says  Morgan  kept  his 
men  sober  by  pretending  he  had  secret  intelligence 
that  the  Spaniards  had  poisoned  all  the  wine  in 
the  city. 

This  precaution  was  not  effective  throughout  the 
pirates'  stay,  however,  for  the  chroniclers  tell  of 
several  instances  of  riotous  excess  by  the  invaders. 
At  Taboga  one  party  of  them  allowed  a  rich  galleon 
to  escape  because  they  wanted  to  get  some  casks  of 
fine  wines  which  they  had  heard  were  on  the  island. 
Morgan,  himself ,  did  not  live  up  to  the  code  of  morals 
he  prescribed. 

Three  weeks  the  pirates  held  Panama  city,  or  what 
was  left  of  it,  for  shortly  after  the  capture  several 
of  the  important  buildings  caught  fire.  Despite  the 
combined  efforts  of  the  pirates  and  citizens,  nothing 
could  stop  the  flames.  In  two  days7  time  whole 
streets  had  burned  out.  Esquemeling  attributes 


220  THE    STORY   OF   PANAMA 

the  fire  to  Morgan,  though  just  why  he  should  turn 
incendiary  at  this  time  is  not  clear.  At  the  end 
of  these  memorable  three  weeks  the  pirates  had 
stripped  the  city  and  had  collected  all  the  available 
ransom  from  the  citizens.  Morgan's  threat  to  those 
who  had  been  slow  in  paying  their  ransom  was 
transportation  to  Jamaica  as  slaves. 

On  February  24,  1671,  Morgan  and  his  men  de- 
parted from  the  ruins  of  the  city  which  they  had 
found  at  the  height  of  commercial  prosperity  less 
than  a  month  before.  The  pirates  with  their  pris- 
oners marched  back  along  the  same  route  over 
which  they  had  come.  At  Cruces  many  of  the  pris- 
oners were  able  to  pay  their  ransom  and  were  re- 
leased. Arriving  at  Fort  Lorenzo,  Morgan  had  the 
spoil  divided.  Everybody  was  dissatisfied  with  the 
small  share,  about  one  hundred  dollars,  which  was 
given  to  each  man.  It  seemed  a  most  inadequate 
amount  after  the  hardships  and  dangers  to  which 
they  had  been  exposed. 

The  expedition,  after  all,  had  not  been  very 
successful.  Despite  the  vigor  of  the  pirates'  attack 
on  Panama  and  their  scouring  of  the  seas  hi  quest 
of  treasure-laden  ships,  one  galleon  containing  all 
the  king's  plate  newly  arrived  from  Peru  had 
escaped.  On  board  this  boat  were  also  the  nuns 
of  a  certain  monastery  who  had  not  forgotten  to  take 
with  them  all  the  rich  ornaments  of  the  church.  IP 


PANAMA   AND   THE   PIRATES  221 

proportion  to  the  devastation  wrought  and  the  hard- 
ships endured  by  the  pirates,  the  raid  on  Panama 
was  not  as  successful  as  that  on  Porto  Bello. 

The  pirates  felt  they  had  good  cause  to  curse 
Henry  Morgan  for  his  unfair  division  of  the  spoils, 
and  they  did  not  hesitate  to  curse  him  to  his  face 
during  the  few  days'  stay  at  Fort  Lorenzo.  At 
last,  when  the  advice  boat  had  returned  from  Porto 
Bello  with  a  message  from  its  citizens  declaring  they 
would  do  nothing  toward  ransoming  the  fort,  the 
admiral  judged  it  wise  to  steal  away  while  he  was 
still  safe.  Making  secret  preparations  he  sailed 
from  Lorenzo,  followed  by  only  a  few  of  his  ships  and 
without  the  formality  of  an  adieu  to  the  majority  of 
his  men,  whom  he  left  amidst  the  ruins  of  the  old 
fort.  The  deserted  pirates  got  away  the  best  they 
could,  financially  but  little  better  off  than  when  they 
started  on  the  hazardous  expedition. 

Morgan  went  to  Jamaica,  and  after  dutifully  giving 
a  share  of  the  spoils  to  the  governor,  left  his  former 
way  of  life  and  in  a  few  years  became  governor 
himself.  Strange  to  say,  he  then  did  more  to  sup- 
press piracy  than  any  of  his  predecessors.  Calling 
in  British  warships,  he  thoroughly  discredited  buc- 
caneering along  the  Spanish  Main. 

Through  the  influence  of  the  Viceroy  of  Peru,  steps 
were  at  once  taken  to  rebuild  Panama  city.  On 
October  31,  1672,  the  queen  of  Spain  signed  a  decree 


222  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

changing  the  location  of  the  city  to  its  present  site. 
The  building  of  the  new  city  was  started  on  January 
21,  1673.  The  new  site  was  chosen  for  various 
reasons,  chief  of  which  was  that  it  afforded  better 
facilities  for  defense.  The  value  of  Ancon  Hill  for 
fortifications  was  mentioned  frequently  in  the  dis- 
patches of  the  time.  Money  to  carry  on  the  work 
was  to  come  largely  from  Peru,  and  those  in  charge 
were  warned  by  the  Spanish  monarch  to  use  care  and 
judgment  in  its  expenditure.  The  new  city  grew 
apace.  Elaborate  walls  rose  for  its  protection 
oceanward,  and  there  was  great  laying  out  of  streets 
and  building  of  homes.  These  walls,  which  are 
among  the  most  interesting  sights  of  Panama  to-day, 
cost  a  vast  amount  of  money. 

With  Morgan's  great  raid,  buccaneering  as  a  busi- 
ness began  to  wane  in  the  Spanish- American  waters, 
but  the  Spanish  ports  of  the  Isthmus  were  not  en- 
tirely neglected  by  the  pirates.  In  1679,  Dampier, 
Sharp,  Hawkins  and  other  leaders  of  the  later 
pirates  raided  Porto  Bello,  which  had  recovered  some 
of  its  former  glory.  The  town  made  little  effort 
to  defend  itself,  but  it  was  sacked  hurriedly — war- 
rants were  out  for  the  pirates  which,  if  served,  would 
have  meant  hanging.  They  stopped  at  Bocas  del 
Toro  and  again  at  the  San  Bias  Islands.  In  this 
party,  which  later  went  to  the  Pacific  to  sack  Santa 
Maria  in  the  Gulf  of  San  Miguel,  were  Dampier, 


PANAMA   AND   THE   PIRATES  225 

Ringrose  and  Lionel  Wafer,  who  later  became  his- 
torians of  the  exploits.  The  last  mentioned  carried 
back  to  England  a  report  that  in  one  part  of  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama  there  were  no  mountains,  a 
report  which  interested  those  who  had  long  cast 
eyes  of  hope  toward  connecting  the  two  oceans  by 
water.  Wafer's  mistaken  idea  led  to  some  interest- 
ing history  in  connection  with  canal  projecting 
which  will  be  mentioned  later. 

After  varying  fortunes  this  band  of  pirates,  some 
three  hundred  and  fifty  strong,  set  out  to  attack  the 
new  city  of  Panama.  Catching  up  with  a  Spanish 
boat  in  the  Pacific,  they  were  careless  enough  to 
allow  it  to  get  away  and  to  carry  intelligence  of  their 
coming.  On  April  23,  1680,  the  pirates  arrived  in 
the  Bay  of  Panama,  where  a  great  naval  battle  was 
fought  and  won  by  them.  The  five  Spanish  men-of- 
war  were  not  properly  manned  and  proved  unable 
to  withstand  the  attack. 

Though  victorious  in  the  naval  engagement,  the 
pirates  did  not  attempt  to  land  at  Panama,  content- 
ing themselves  instead  with  lying  out  in  the  bay  and 
selling  to  the  merchants  goods  which  they  had 
captured  as  spoils  of  the  battle.  A  part  of  the  time 
they  spent  at  Taboga,  consuming  in  all  ten  days  in 
the  waters  of  Panama  Bay.  Finally,  after  threat- 
ening to  return  later  to  sack  the  city,  the  pirates  left 
for  a  cruise  along  the  coast  of  South  America. 


226  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

After  months  "of  "varying  success  the  party  split 
in  two,  those  whoa  did  not  care  to  follow  Sharp,  the 
commander  of  the  expedition,  sailing  for  the  Gulf 
of  San  Miguel  on  the  Pacific  coast  of  the  Isthmus. 
Dampier  and  Wafer  were  in  this  party  of  forty-four 
men  who  later  undertook  the  perilous  trip  across  the 
Isthmus  to  the  Atlantic.  The  account  of  their 
hardships  reads  much  like  the  story  of  Morgan's 
famous  march.  They  were  surrounded  by  hostile 
Indians,  compelled  to  choose  the  most  circuitous 
route  to  avoid  contact  with  the  Spaniards,  forced 
to  ford  swollen  streams  and  to  flounder  through  al- 
most impassable  tropical  jungle.  Wafer,  the  surgeon 
of  the  party,  met  with  an  accident  while  drying  out 
his  powder  one  day,  and  with  two  companions  was 
left  behind  to  the  mercy  of  the  Indians.  Good  for- 
tune was  with  him,  however,  for  a  few  weeks  later 
he  and  his  comrades  reached  the  Atlantic  and  found 
Dampier 's  sloop. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  LAND  OF  DREAMS 

ANY  detailed  history  of  the  Isthmus  during  the 
eighteenth  century  would  be  uninteresting,  save 
perhaps  the  mention  of  an  occasional  conflict  be- 
tween the  Spanish  settlers  and  the  Indians  of  Darien. 
In  the  accounts  of  piratical  raids  in  the  latter  half 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  Indian  was  an  ever- 
present  factor  even  in  that  part  of  the  Isthmus  that 
is  now  being  so  rapidly  modernized  by  American 
enterprise.  During  the  days  of  its  glory  Nombre  de 
Dios  was  never  free  from  danger  of  an  attack  by  the 
Maroons  or  Cimmaroons,  while  Porto  Bello,  in  later 
years,  considered  these  tribes  a  not  infrequent 
menace. 

During  the  years  from  1700  until  far  into  the  latter 
half  of  the  century  the  savages  of  Darien  not  only 
resisted  all  attempts  at  settling  their  country,  but 
made  occasional  forays  into  territory  settled  by  the 
Spaniards.  Attempts  on  the  part  of  the  Jesuit 
missionaries  to  penetrate  the  lower  Isthmus  met  with 
repeated  failure  —  often  resulting  in  the  pillage  of 
their  outposts  and  the  massacre  of  the  occupants. 

227 


228  THE    STORY   OF   PANAMA 

Even  to  this  day  Yaviza,  a  town  on  one  of  the  tribu- 
taries of  the  Tuyra  River,  founded  by  these  Jesuit 
priests  in  1740,  is  an  outpost  of  the  Darien  Indians 
and  remains  largely  forbidden  ground.  Beyond 
Yaviza  the  white  man,  unless  he  is  a  trader  well 
known  to  the  tribes,  seldom  ventures.  The  Indians 
of  San  Bias,  frequent  visitors  to  Colon,  are  the  only 
type  familiar  to  the  resident  of  the  Canal  Zone. 

But  if  desultory  conflicts  between  the  savage  and 
the  Spanish  settler  form  the  most  exciting  events 
of  Isthmian  history  during  the  eighteenth  century, 
they  do  not  mean  that  Panama  occupied  no  place 
in  the  minds  of  men  across  the  sea.  The  world- 
famous  Isthmus,  with  its  vast  possibilities,  has  been 
a  place  to  dream  about  from  the  day  of  its  dis- 
covery. Only  a  narrow  strip  of  land  in  the  inevitable 
path  of  the  world's  commerce! 

Even  before  the  dawn  of  the  century  of  which  we 
speak,  one  prominent  man  had  dreamed  of  the  com- 
mercial possibilities  of  the  Isthmus.  It  was  William 
Patterson,  founder  of  the  Bank  of  England,  who 
seized  upon  the  favorable  report  of  Lionel  Wafer,  of 
piratical  fame,  to  make  the  Isthmus  the  objective 
point  of  one  of  the  most  colossal  schemes  in  history. 
That  it  failed  miserably  does  not  cast  discredit  upon 
the  man  who  dreamed  of  its  possibilities.  Like  the 
famous  Mississippi  Bubble,  this  Isthmian  Bubble 
burst  because  it  was  ahead  of  its  time. 


THE   LAND   OF   DREAMS  231 

Patterson  planned  to  establish  on  the  Isthmus 
colonies  that  would  control  the  key  to  the  world's 
trade,  and  thus  make  great  his  own  country,  Scotland. 
With  the  idea  of  first  controlling  the  trade  between 
the  Eastern  and  the  Western  hemispheres,  he  went 
among  the  merchants  of  Scotland  to  solicit  funds. 
He  raised  £900,000,  mostly  among  his  own  people, 
and  in  1698,  with  twelve  hundred  colonists  recruited 
in  Scotland,  sailed  for  the  Isthmian  seaboard. 

Landing  along  the  Isthmus  of  Darien  not  far  from 
the  spot  made  famous  by  Balboa  and  Pedrarias,  the 
Scotch  colonists  named  the  small  bay  which  they 
entered,  New  Caledonia.  The  place  is  known  to-day 
as  Puerto  Escoces.  Founding  the  towns  of  New 
Edinburg  and  St.  Andrews,  they  had  scarcely  settled 
when  the  fevers  of  this  infested  coast  devastated  the 
colony,  the  settlers  from  bonny  Scotland  succumbing 
by  hundreds.  When  Starvation  stalked  alongside 
the  specter,  Disease,  the  disheartened  remnant  re- 
turned to  Scotland  in  June,  1699. 

Not  daunted,  the  company  sent  forth  another 
party  of  colonists,  thirteen  hundred  in  number,  the 
same  year.  It  also  returned,  as  did  a  third  colony 
sent  out  in  February,  1700.  The  last  settlers  might 
have  remained  had  not  the  hostility  of  the  Spaniards 
driven  them  away.  Thus  ended,  at  the  sacrifice  of 
an  immense  sum  of  money  and  of  many  lives,  one 
man's  scheme  for  converting  Panama  into  commer- 


232  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

cial  capital.  In  1715,  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain, 
making  tardy  amends  for  a  great  man's  misfortune, 
gave  Patterson  an  indemnity  of  £18,241  for  his  losses 
in  the  Darien  project. 

A  hundred  years  later  another  great  man  was 
dreaming  of  Panama  in  an  altogether  different 
fashion.  Baron  von  Humboldt,  German  naturalist 
and  traveler,  during  his  well-known  and  fruitful 
voyage  to  Spanish  America,  found  time  to  dream  of 
the  canal  which  he  saw  would  some  day  connect  the 
two  oceans.  He  mentioned  nine  possible  routes, 
some  of  them  most  visionary  in  the  light  of  present- 
day  knowledge,  but  he  did  not  fail  to  include  all  the 
feasible  ones.  He  computed  the  various  elevations, 
and  because  of  its  advantages  in  this  respect,  named 
Panama  as  the  most  favorable  route. 

Another  man  whom  we  can  imagine  as  dreaming 
of  the  commercial  future  of  the  American  Isthmus 
before  Humboldt  visited  it,  was  Lord  Horatio  Nelson, 
the  great  English  Admiral.  Long  before  the  event 
at  Trafalgar  had  given  him  undying  fame,  the  Eng- 
lish government  had  sent  him  in  charge  of  an  expe- 
dition to  seize  the  lakes  of  Nicaragua  with  the  idea 
of  using  them  later  in  a  scheme  for  controlling  the 
interoceanic  commerce.  This  was  in  1780,  when 
England  and  Spain  were  quarreling  for  possession 
of  the  Nicaraguan  seaboard.  Though  Nelson  planned 
to  seize  the  whole  strip  of  country  from  ocean 


THE  LAND  OF  DREAMS  233 

to  ocean,  his  expedition  really  accomplished  little. 
Its  commander  injured  his  health  in  the  attempt,  and 
returned  to  England  after  barely  dipping  into  the 
project. 

In  glancing  over  the  names  of  individuals  promi- 
nent in  modern  European  history  who  found  time 
to  think  about  this  great  prospect  across  the  seas,  it 
is  interesting  to  speculate  what  might  have  been  the 
result  had  Louis  Napoleon  been  successful  in  launch- 
ing on  the  American  Isthmus  a  scheme  similar  to 
that  by  which  he  sought  to  establish  his  power  in 
Mexico.  Even  vaster  designs  may  have  actuated  the 
ambitious  emperor  in  his  attempts  to  gain  control 
of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 

Louis  was  a  prisoner  of  state  under  Louis  Philippe 
when  he  first  became  interested  in  the  Isthmus  and 
especially  in  Nicaragua.  Upon  his  escape  from 
prison  in  1846  he  went  to  England  and  published 
articles  on  his  views,  comparing  the  future  of  the 
Isthmus  to  the  past  of  Constantinople,  whose  geo- 
graphical position  rendered  her  the  "  Queen  of  the 
ancient  world."  But  intrigues  in  France  kept  him 
too  busy  to  push  his  scheme.  He  clung  to  it,  how- 
ever, and  carried  it  to  the  point  of  having  a  canal 
route  surveyed  and  of  securing  a  concession  from 
the  Nicaraguan  government.  Though  he  never  ac- 
complished more  than  this  because  of  his  precarious 
position  at  home,  it  is  worth  while  to  remember  that 


234  THE   STORY  OF   PANAMA 

he  saw  into  the  possibilities  of  the  Isthmus.  Had 
Napoleon  III  been  firmly  seated  on  his  throne,  there 
is  no  telling  what  effect  his  intriguing  might  have  had 
on  the  history  of  the  Isthmus.  He  was,  perhaps, 
still  dreaming  of  it  in  1870,  when  Germany  descended 
upon  France  and  put  an  end  to  his  empire  and  to 
his  career. 

Then,  too,  Panama  is  a  land  of  schoolboy  dreams. 
No  part  of  American  history  is  more  absorbing  to 
the  schoolboy  than  that  which  deals  with  explora- 
tion and  discovery.  What  golden  fancies  have  been 
woven  about  that  old  Spaniard  who  went  to  Florida 
to  hunt  for  the  "  fountain  of  everlasting  youth/' 
or  of  him  who  marched  on  a  conquering  expedition 
up  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  made  the  Indians 
believe  he  was  a  child  of  the  Sun  whom  they  dared 
not  molest  ?  We  should  not  be  fair  to  our  younger 
readers  if  we  failed  to  tell  them  that  these  same 
heroes,  Ponce  de  Leon,  De  Soto  and  others  equally 
well  known,  have  had  their  place  in  the  history  of 
discovery  at  Panama.  We  but  mention  some  of 
the  best  known  of  them. 

Amerigo  Vespucci,  whose  name  was  inadvertently 
given  to  the  western  hemisphere,  cruised  along  the 
Gulf  of  Darien  as  early  as  1499,  and  for  the  next 
eight  years  traveled  up  and  down  the  mainland, 
many  times  touching  the  shores  of  Panama,  in  search 
of  that  strait  which  was  believed  to  exist  there- 


THE   LAND   OF  DREAMS  235 

abouts.  De  Cosa  and  Pinzon,  commanders  re- 
spectively of  the  Santa  Maria  and  the  Nina  on 
Columbus' s  first  voyage,  made  early  trips  along  the 
Isthmian  coast  in  quest  of  the  strait  and  of  gold. 
De  Soto,  who  goes  down  in  fame  as  the  discoverer 
of  the  Mississippi  and  is  infamous  because  of  his 
Indian-killing  expedition  along  that  same  stream, 
explored  the  coast  as  far  up  as  Yucatan.  Cortez, 
the  conqueror  of  Mexico,  was  one  of  the  fathers  of 
the  plan  to  dig  some  kind  of  a  waterway  across  the 
American  Isthmus.  Pizarro,  the  despoiler  of  Aztec 
civilization  in  Peru,  played  an  important  role  in 
affairs  of  the  Isthmus  during  those  strenuous  days 
following  Balboa's  startling  discovery  of  the  Pacific, 
a  role  which  is  a  part  of  the  Balboa  story,  already 
told. 

Many  more  names  might  be  mentioned;  the 
most  important  must  suffice,  however,  for  it  is 
time  to  tell  what  manner  of  place  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama  was,  to  attract  so  many  Spanish  explorers 
and  adventurers.  The  land  was  a  tropical  jungle, 
differing  very  little  from  its  present  appearance. 
The  flora  and  fauna  which  the  Spanish  pioneers  saw 
were  the  same  which  greet  the  eye  of  the  American 
hunter  to-day  when,  armed  with  his  Winchester, 
he  sets  out  from  a  Canal  Zone  village  to  kill  a  deer, 
a  jaguar  or  a  mountain  cow. 

But  how  different  the  inhabitants !    Instead  of  a 


236  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

sparsely  settled  interior  and  a  few  towns,  with  a 
population  all  told  of  less  than  a  half  million  in  the 
whole  Republic,  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  then  had 
two  million  people.  From  the  agricultural  plains 
of  Chiriqui  in  the  northernmost  part  to  the  mountain 
fastnesses  of  San  Bias  in  the  south,  the  Spaniards 
found  Indians  who  were  contented  and  prosperous. 
They  were  the  Chibchas,  who  had  reached  a  plane 
of  civilization  not  unlike  that  of  the  Incas  of  Peru 
and  the  Aztecs  of  Mexico.  In  Chiriqui  and  neigh- 
boring northern  provinces  their  culture  was  highest, 
due  perhaps,  not  only  to  the  influences  of  Aztec  re- 
finement, but  to  the  richness  of  Mayan  civilization 
in  Yucatan,  some  of  which  had  filtered  down  to  the 
Isthmus. 

The  glories  of  this  civilization  are  being  unearthed 
in  the  province  of  Chiriqui  every  day.  Within 
the  past  few  years,  a  systematic  study  of  this  Indian 
culture  has  been  made  by  digging  up  the  buried 
evidences  of  it  from  the  graves  of  the  early  race. 
Barrel  after  barrel  of  pottery  has  been  shipped 
out  of  the  province  by  scientists,  curio-seekers  and 
museums.  A  classification  of  these  buried  memen- 
toes of  a  past  age  places  the  Isthmian  Indian  of  the 
fifteenth  century  on  a  plane  not  far  below  his  neigh- 
bors of  Mexico  and  Peru. 

These  Indians  had  passed  the  stone  and  the 
bronze  age.  In  many  ways  they  gave  evidence  of 


THE   LAND   OF   DREAMS  239 

an  Asiatic  origin,  as  do  other  early  American  tribes. 
This  is  shown  in  their  worship  of  the  sun,  stars  and 
moon,  and  their  use  of  the  decimal  system.  Like 
the  Asiatics,  they  had  a  calendar  with  a  week  of  three 
days  and  a  cycle  of  fifteen  years.  They  were  not 
cannibals,  but  offered  human  sacrifice  as  did  the 
Aztecs.  The  Isthmian  Indian  was  not  warlike,  nor 
did  he  have  a  strong  centralized  government  such 
as  the  Incas  enjoyed.  These  two  causes  account 
for  his  allowing  the  Spaniards  to  enslave  him,  make 
him  a  beast  of  burden  and  depopulate  his  race  with 
amazing  cruelties.  The  atrocious  treatment  to 
which  he  submitted  practically  exterminated  the 
Isthmian  Indian  in  a  brief  hundred  years.  That 
part  of  the  original  two  million  who  were  not  wiped 
out,  root  and  branch,  became  subdued,  eventually 
intermarried  with  the  conquering  races  and  to-day 
their  descendants  reside  in  their  native  land  as  the 
modern  Panamanians  who  are  usually  a  mixture  of 
Spanish  and  Indian. 

One  striking  exception  to  this  mixture  of  races 
is  the  San  Bias  Indian.  Living  in  the  almost  in- 
accessible tropical  mountains  of  southern  Panama, 
this  race,  or  collection  of  tribes,  has  kept  the  Indian 
blood  pure.  In  appearance  the  San  Bias  Indian  is 
typical.  He  has  high  cheek  bones,  copper  color, 
large  head,  straight  black  hair,  bow  legs  and  low 
but  powerful  physique.  The  San  Bias  natives  still 


240  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

enjoy  the  tribal  life  under  a  cacique,  or  chieftain. 
Though  the  men  with  their  odd  appearance  and 
unique  dress  are  a  common  and  interesting  sight  on 
the  streets  of  Colon,  where  they  come  to  trade,  the 
women  never  appear  in  public. 

It  is  a  San  Bias  tradition  that  no  white  man  has 
ever  been  allowed  to  stay  overnight  in  their  country. 
So  well  intrenched  is  this  tradition  that  the  white 
visitor  in  the  land  is  first  invited,  and  then  ordered,  to 
leave  San  Bias  before  nightfall.  The  chief  char- 
acteristic of  these  native  Indians,  who  have  so  ably 
preserved  their  racial  individuality,  is  their  marked 
ability  as  sailors.  A  San  Bias  Indian  can  navigate  a 
cayuca  (a  dugout  with  one  sail)  on  almost  any  kind  of 
sea.  When  the  ocean  liners  have  difficulty  in  making 
Limon  Bay,  the  San  Bias  Indian  sails  skillfully  into 
Colon  harbor,  after  a  run  of  perhaps  fifty  miles  from 
his  home  down  the  coast.  He  brings  a  load  of  coco- 
nuts, hides,  tropical  fruits  and  a  little  gold.  Though 
the  yellow  metal  is  known  to  exist  in  the  San  Bias 
country,  the  natives  have  never  brought  it  in  sufficient 
quantities  to  encourage  white  men  to  brave  the 
native  prejudices  in  attempting  to  exploit  it. 


(241) 
SAN    BLAS    INDIAN    WOMAN 

An  unusual  snapshot  secured  by 
the  authors 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  PANAMA  OP  TO-DAY 

PANAMA  has  bulked  so  large  in  the  imagination  of 
men  that  it  is  worth  while  to  take  a  short  range  view 
of  the  country  and  of  its  people  as  they  are  to-day. 
The  Republic  of  Panama  lies  wholly  in  the  tropics 
between  76°  and  84°  longitude  and  7°  and  10°  latitude. 
The  country  is  roughly  rolling,  rising  in  the  extreme 
east  to  an  elevation  of  about  three  thousand  feet  and 
in  the  west  to  nearly  eleven  thousand  feet ;  the 
highest  elevation  being  Chiriqui  Volcano  in  the 
Province  of  Chiriqui.  The  average  width  of  Panama 
is  nearly  one  hundred  miles  and  its  length  about 
four  hundred  miles. 

The  proximity  of  the  oceans  renders  the  climate 
moderate  and  equable.  The  temperature  presents 
little  variation;  so  little  that  American  residents 
in  the  Canal  Zone  do  not  have  recourse  to  the  weather 
as  a  safe  topic  for  desultory  conversation.  Variation 
in  temperature  averages  from  70°  at  night  to  92° 
in  the  daytime,  and  this  average  does  not  vary  with 
the  seasons.  A  wet  season  and  a  dry  season  take 

the  place  of  spring,  summer,  fall  and  winter  in  the 

243 


244  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

States,  the  rainy  period  lasting  eight  months  of 
the  year.  In  May  and  June  the  precipitation  is 
about  what  may  be  expected  in  the  Central  States ; 
from  July  to  January  the  rain  is  very  excessive; 
while  there  is  practically  no  rain  in  January,  Febru- 
ary, March  and  April. 

The  principal  resources  of  Panama  are  its  lumber 
and  its  agricultural  possibilities.  Little  has  been 
done  in  the  development  of  either,  but  beginnings 
are  now  being  made.  In  many  parts  of  the  Republic 
lumbering  industries  are  springing  up.  English  and 
American  syndicates  are  financing  them,  and  as 
fast  as  the  mahogany,  cocobolo,  lignum-vitse  and 
other  fine  timber  lands  are  cleared  they  are  being 
converted  into  plantations,  chiefly  rubber  and  coco- 
nut. 

The  natives  attach  little  value  to  the  fine  specimens 
of  mahogany  and  other  woods.  They  frequently 
hew  a  cayuca  —  a  dugout  boat  —  from  a  splendid 
mahogany  log  eighteen  or  twenty  feet  in  length. 
Such  a  log  in  the  United  States,  it  is  said,  would  be 
worth  between  two  and  three  thousand  dollars. 
Across  a  small  stream  near  Chepo  in  the  Bayana 
River  country  is  a  mahogany  wood  log  forty  feet 
long  and  five  feet  in  diameter.  In  a  piano  factory 
in  the  States  this  log  would  be  valued  at  several 
thousand  dollars. 

Within  the  borders  of  Panama  there  are  more 


THE    PANAMA   OF  TO-DAY  245 

than  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  people.  Most 
of  them  live  in  small  towns  and  villages.  Panama 
and  Colon  are  the  largest  cities,  having  respectively 
about  thirty-five  thousand  and  twenty  thousand 
people.  David  and  Boquete  are  considerable  com- 
munities in  the  west.  With  these  exceptions  the 
towns  in  Panama  are  small  groups  of  bamboo  huts, 
thatched  to  keep  out  sun  and  rain. 

In  the  jungle  one  frequently  comes  upon  a  thatched 
hut  where  dwell  the  farmer  and  his  wife  with  a  family 
of  seven  or  eight  children.  The  furnishings  of  these 
primitive  homes  are  rude ;  gourds  and  coconut  shells 
are  the  chief  culinary  utensils.  The  bare  ground 
is  more  often  than  not  the  bed,  the  table,  the  chair, 
the  workbench  and  very  possibly  the  chicken  roost. 
An  old-fashioned  muzzle-loading  rifle  and  a  powder 
horn  combine  utility  and  adornment.  When  a 
stranger  appears  the  whole  family  gather  about  to 
welcome  him  and  to  minister  to  his  needs  as  well  as 
they  can  with  their  limited  facilities. 

A  few  coconut  trees,  a  small  patch  of  bananas  and 
a  garden,  medium  sized  and  well  grown  with  weeds, 
are  usually  the  only  evidences  of  any  provision 
for  the  future.  But  the  future  does  not  trouble 
these  humble  creatures;  they  rely  on  Nature  and 
manana  to  supply  their  simple  needs.  Suffrage, 
tariff  and  kindred  interests  do  not  touch  them. 
There  is  no  necessity  for  providing  against  winter, 


246  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

to  incite  them  to  activity ;  there  is  little  to  stimulate 
the  ambition  or  to  sharpen  the  wits.  These  resi- 
dents of  Panama's  interior  have  very  little  need  for 
communication  with  the  outside  world,  since  the 
daily  routine  consists  in  getting  a  living  from  Nature 
as  she  presents  opportunity  for  it  at  their  very  doors. 
Yet  the  native  in  the  "bush"  visits  his  neighbors, 
makes  an  occasional  trip  to  the  nearest  village,  and  is 
beginning  to  take  more  than  a  desultory  interest  in 
the  politics  of  his  country.  He  was  an  important 
factor  in  the  election  of  the  president  of  Panama  in 
1912,  and  the  Liberal  Party,  representing  progress 
and  advancement,  receives  his  support. 

Occasionally  one  finds  evidences  that  the  native 
of  the  interior  is  beginning  to  know  the  outside 
world.  A  soap  box  bearing  the  brand  of  a  well- 
known  American  firm  may  serve  as  his  washstand. 
Cheap  lithographs  sometimes  adorn  the  walls  of  his 
cottage.  The  farmer  himself  wears  a  pair  of  cotton- 
ade  trousers  and  a  hickory  shirt,  both  products  of 
foreign  manufacture;  while  the  members  of  his 
family  disport  themselves  in  calico  and  gingham. 

The  people  of  the  interior  are  devout  Catholics  — 
as  are  all  Latin  American  people.  In  every  interior 
community  the  church  fetes  and  festivals  are  ob- 
served with  punctilious  regard.  Indeed,  the  most 
vivid  impressions  of  this  religious  feeling  can  be  ob- 
tained in  the  rural  sections.  At  Taboga  there  is  an 


I.    PATIO    SCENE   NEAR   DAVID  (248) 

II.    PRESIDENTIAL   ELECTION    DAY,    DAVID 


THE    PANAMA   OF   TO-DAY  249 

impressive  celebration  every  Easter.  Holy  Week, 
which  precedes  Easter  Sunday,  is  devoted  to  the 
observances  of  this  ceremony;  and  from  Friday 
until  Sunday  there  is  a  graphic  portrayal  of  the 
events  of  Christ's  passion  which  those  days  com- 
memorate. Former  residents  of  the  village  return 
for  this  passion  play,  lodgings  are  scarce  and  the 
village  is  filled  with  visitors.  All  the  members  of 
the  local  parish  participate  in  this  devotional  cere- 
mony. The  young  men,  dressed  as  Roman  soldiers, 
guard  the  sanctuary  in  the  church.  The  maidens 
of  the  village  have  their  share  in  the  ceremony  in 
honor  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  all  the  villagers  find 
place  in  the  nightly  processions  in  which  the  sanc- 
tuary and  the  images  from  the  church  are  carried 
through  the  village,  on  floats.  All  these  ceremonies 
are  characterized  by  a  reverent  devotion.  One 
feels  that  during  them  Christianity  is,  to  these 
simple  people,  a  living,  pulsating  faith. 

In  contrast  with  the  type  of  native  found  in  the 
interior  sections,  there  are  the  purely  Spanish  people 
who  are  energetic  and  progressive.  Many  of  them 
have  homes  that  would  be  a  credit  to  an  American 
farmer.  Their  farms  are  well  kept  and  show  thrift 
not  inferior  to  that  found  in  our  best  American  com- 
munities. A  few  such  farms  are  to  be  seen  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Panama  City  and  in  the  western 
provinces,  where  conditions  are  more  favorable  for 


250  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

agriculture.  This  is  particularly  true  around  David 
and  Boquete. 

The  better  class  of  Spanish  residents  in  Panama 
City  and  Colon  are  refined,  cultivated  and  intelli- 
gent people,  among  whom  the  canal  builders  have 
found  intimate  and  interesting  friends.  These  people 
have  been  educated  in  American  and  in  foreign  uni- 
versities. The  Panamanians  of  the  first  families 
are  regular  attendants  at  the  semimonthly  balls 
given  by  Commission  employees  at  the  Tivoli  Hotel. 
Once  an  entry  is  gained  to  their  charming  homes  the 
visitor  begins  a  delightful  friendship. 

At  present  the  one  absorbing  interest  in  Panama 
is  the  construction  of  the  great  canal.  Contrary 
to  the  popular  notion,  the  Canal  takes  a  south- 
easterly direction  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  The  Canal  Zone,  a  strip  of  land 
extending  five  miles  on  each  side  of  the  canal,  cuts 
the  Republic  of  Panama  into  two  almost  equal  parts. 
Except  that  the  jungle  has  been  cleared  away  near 
the  scene  of  operations,  the  country  covered  by  our 
jurisdiction  is  not  in  any  essential  particular  different 
from  the  adjacent  country.  The  present  scheme  of 
government  for  the  Canal  Zone,  after  the  comple- 
tion of  the  canal,  provides  for  the  return  of  the  Zone 
to  its  original  jungle  growth,  as  it  prohibits  any 
settlement  there  and  any  agricultural  development. 
Such  a  tropical  jungle  would  be  an  invaluable  aid 


THE   PANAMA   OF   TO-DAY  251 

in  the  protection  of  the  canal  against  possible  in- 
vasion by  land. 

The  population  of  the  Canal  Zone  differs  materially 
from  that  of  the  Republic  of  Panama.  In  the  Canal 
Zone  one  finds  a  most  cosmopolitan  people,  gathered 
together  from  the  four  corners  of  the  earth  to  help 
build  the  great  waterway.  In  addition  to  the  Ameri- 
cans, there  are  in  the  employ  of  the  Isthmian  Canal 
Commission  West  Indians,  East  Indians,  Spaniards, 
Colombians,  Panamanians,  American  Negroes,  Ital- 
ians, Greeks  and  what  not.  Of  course  the  most  im- 
portant members  of  this  complex  working  force  are 
the  Americans. 

Americans  in  the  Canal  Zone  are  not  so  far  out 
of  the  world  as  one  might  think.  Indeed,  to  them 
the  Canal  Zone  has  become  an  American  community, 
with  its  churches,  clubs,  entertainment  halls  and 
typical  American  homes.  The  Commission  em- 
ployee who  has  come  from  the  United  States  has 
brought  his  institutions  with  him.  After  a  strenuous 
week's  work  he  finds  the  same  recreation  on  Sunday 
that  engages  thousands  of  his  countrymen  at  home. 
He  has  his  library  table  with  its  books,  magazines 
and  newspapers.  He  may  go  to  church,  and  will 
surely  send  his  children  to  Sunday  School.  He  enjoys 
a  Sunday  dinner  not  unlike  that  which  you  would 
have  at  home.  Then  in  the  afternoon  he  may  go 
swimming  or  to  a  baseball  game.  In  the  evening  he 


252  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

may  attend  a  sacred  concert  at  the  Y.M.C.A.  Club 
House.  Or  perhaps  he  has  spent  the  day  in  Panama 
City,  where  he  watched  the  lottery  drawing  at  ten 
o'clock  on  Sunday  morning,  drove  into  the  savannas 
in  the  afternoon  and  took  dinner  at  the  Central  or 
the  Tivoli,  while  listening  to  a  concert  by  the  I.C.C. 
band  or  the  National  band  of  the  Republic. 

If  it  was  the  Sunday  on  which  the  I.C.C.  band 
gives  its  concert  in  his  home  town  he  certainly  stayed 
at  home ;  for  the  excellent  concerts  of  this  organiza- 
tion are  important  events  in  the  social  life  of  each 
Canal  Zone  village.  The  Commission  band  is  com- 
posed of  employees  who  have  weekly  rehearsals  and 
weekly  concerts  under  the  direction  of  a  trained 
leader.  The  band  is  supported  from  Commission 
funds,  each  member  receiving  a  compensation  for 
his  services.  The  music  director  is  employed  in  that 
capacity  and  devotes  his  entire  time  to  musical 
affairs  given  under  official  direction. 

Social  life  among  the  Americans  in  the  Zone  finds 
its  outlet  in  dances,  dinner  parties,  bridge  parties, 
moving  picture  shows,  beach  parties,  picnics,  tennis, 
bowling,  bathing,  and  boating.  The  men  talk  poli- 
tics with  as  much  fervor  as  if  they  were  voting  in  the 
various  political  contests  at  home.  During  the 
national  campaign  numerous  straw  elections,  pre- 
ceded by  speech  making,  political  rallies  and  cam- 
paigning for  favorite  candidates,  add  a  realistic 


THE    PANAMA   OF  TO-DAY  255 

feature  to  this  form  of  play  which  really  keeps  the 
employee  interested  in  his  citizenship. 

The  craving  for  entertainment  which  every  normal 
American  carries  with  him  is  gratified  in  the  Canal 
Zone  by  the  managers  of  the  Y.M.C.A.  Club  House. 
They  bring  entertainers  from  the  States ;  and  get  up 
local  talent  minstrel  shows,  comic  operas,  vaudeville 
shows  and  concerts.  During  the  winter  months 
grand  opera  companies  sing  Carmen,  II  Trovatore 
and  other  classics,  in  Spanish,  at  the  National 
Theatre  in  Panama  City.  Americans  form  an  en- 
thusiastic and  appreciative  part  of  the  audience  at 
these  operas.  Each  year  at  least  one  circus  comes  to 
the  Canal  Zone  on  its  way  to  South  America ;  every- 
body goes. 

Perhaps  nowhere  in  the  world  is  July  Fourth  cele- 
brated with  more  enthusiasm  than  in  Panama. 
Each  employee  contributes  toward  a  fund  for  this 
celebration,  which  includes  patriotic  exercises,  ath- 
letic contests,  aquatic  events  and  baseball  games, 
throughout  the  day;  and  an  elaborate  display  of 
fireworks  at  night.  Thousands  of  dollars  are  spent 
on  these  fireworks,  and  valuable  prizes  are  given  the 
winners  in  the  athletic  and  aquatic  contests. 

The  non-American  members  of  the  Canal  Zone 
population  are  very  interesting.  In  the  foreign 
sections  of  the  towns  John  Chinaman,  who  "likee 
Milika  man  vellee  much/7  distributes  his  oriental 


256  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

goods.  John  is  not  a  one-price  merchant,  and  he 
seldom  lets  a  seriously  inclined  customer  escape 
without  relieving  him  of  some  of  his  substance. 
John's  children  attend  the  American  schools,  and 
none  stand  higher  than  they.  It  may  be  said  of 
John  that  while  he  is  an  enterprising  citizen  his  en- 
terprise never  gets  him  entangled  in  the  law.  His 
crookedness  is  not  unlike  that  of  some  of  our  noted 
American  captains  of  industry  —  it  is  usually  legit- 
imate so  far  as  courts  and  the  law  are  concerned. 

The  East  Indian  also  has  his  shops  in  the  native 
sections ;  linens,  laces  and  silks  are  his  principal  stock 
in  trade.  Following  the  custom  of  his  race,  he  does 
not  rely  wholly  on  his  shop ;  he  goes  out  after  business, 
and  he  may  be  seen  any  day  and  in  any  community 
with  a  great  pack  swung  over  his  back,  visiting  the 
American  housewife  on  the  Isthmus.  A  day  or  two 
after  pay  day  his  tribe  are  especially  active.  Like 
the  Chinaman,  he  adjusts  the  price  of  a  commodity 
to  the  experience  and  the  financial  strength  of  his 
customer.  The  sign  boards  of  these  venders  make 
interesting  reading.  Sing  On,  for  instance,  sells 
"disturbances  of  many  varieties  to  the  thirsty." 

A  census  taken  in  March,  1912,  presents  some  in- 
teresting figures  regarding  the  population  of  the  Canal 
Zone.  Great  Britain  furnishes  (largely  from  its 
West  Indian  domain)  the  greatest  number  of  in- 
habitants, 30,859;  the  United  States  comes  next, 


THE   PANAMA   OF  TO-DAY  257 

with  11,850;  Panama  supplies  7636;  Spain  4305; 
France,  2760;  Colombia,  1521;  Greece,  1291. 
Other  countries  are  represented  by  various  numbers 
of  people ;  from  Italy,  with  812,  down  to  Roumania, 
Liberia  and  Bulgaria,  which  have  one  each.  The 
grand  total  is  62,810,  of  which  45,163  are  males  and 
17,647  females.  These  figures  do  not  include  the 
employees  of  the  United  States  government  in 
Panama  and  in  Colon.  Classified  by  races,  the  popu- 
lation of  the  Canal  Zone  is  as  follows :  White,  20,063  ; 
Black,  38,425;  Indian,  648;  Yellow,  527;  Hindu, 
381;  Filipino,  2;  mixed,  11,636.  Of  the  11,850 
American  citizens  enumerated,  1375  are  from  Penn- 
sylvania, 1372  from  New  York,  692  from  Ohio,  453 
from  Illinois,  386  from  Massachusetts,  382  from 
Indiana. 

It  is  estimated  that  at  the  time  of  the  last  census 
there  were  42,000  people  in  the  employ  of  the  Canal 
Commission.  Practically  all  the  white  Americans 
are  employed  in  supervisory  positions  or  in  positions 
requiring  skill,  while  the  unskilled  labor  is  done  by 
day  laborers,  most  of  whom  are  West  Indians  and 
Spaniards  or  Spanish-speaking  people. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  PANAMA  RAILROAD 

SIMON  BOLIVAR,  the  South  American  patriot,  had 
visions  of  the  importance  of  an  Isthmian  canal  in 
his  scheme  of  a  unified  Latin  America.  In  1829  he 
employed  two  engineers,  Lloyd,  an  Englishman,  and 
Falcmar,  a  Swede,  to  survey  a  route  across  the 
Isthmus.  This  survey  resulted  in  nothing  as  far 
as  Bolivar's  plans  were  concerned,  but  it  later  be- 
came the  route  of  the  Panama  Railroad,  the  first 
transcontinental  railway  in  the  western  hemisphere 
and  one  of  the  important  engineering  accomplish- 
ments of  the  nineteenth  century. 

In  1846,  the  United  States  made  a  treaty  with 
New  Granada,  now  Colombia,  which  was  destined 
to  have  a  far-reaching  effect  on  all  future  schemes 
for  connecting  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific.  It  gave 
the  United  States  the  exclusive  right  of  transit  across 
the  Isthmus  from  the  Chiriqui  Lagoon  to  the  Atrato 
River.  This  included  all  routes  —  road,  railway  or 
canal.  The  treaty  came  just  at  the  time  we  were 
acquiring  Oregon  and  were  going  into  a  war  of 
territorial  acquisition  with  Mexico.  With  the  se- 

258 


THE   PANAMA  RAILROAD  259 

curing  of  new  territory  on  the  Pacific  came  an  im- 
perative need  for  some  line  of  communication  across 
the  Isthmus.  So  under  the  new  treaty,  John  L. 
Stephens,  a  New  York  writer,  traveler  and  prominent 
man  of  affairs,  went  to  Bogota  in  1850  to  secure  a 
franchise  for  a  railroad  which  was  to  be  financed  and 
built  by  American  capital. 

He  completed  his  negotiations  that  year,  a  com- 
pany was  organized,  and  there  began  a  terrific 
battle  with  tropical  nature  which  was  to  end  trium- 
phantly five  years  later  in  a  completed  railway 
across  the  Isthmus.  The  promoters  of  the  railroad 
were  John  L.  Stephens,  W.  H.  Aspinwall  and  Henry 
Chauncey.  To  commemorate  the  names  of  these 
capitalists  there  is  a  rather  mediocre  statue  on  Colon 
Beach. 

The  company  started  work  in  May,  1850,  with 
Colonel  G.  M.  Tot  ten  as  chief  engineer.  From  what 
we  know  of  conditions  at  the  time,  it  must  have  been 
a  beginning  to  dishearten  any  but  those  of  most  pro- 
found faith  and  of  determined  mind.  We  may  imagine 
a  rowboat  scraping  the  coral  at  Manzanillo  Island, 
a  few  white  men  and  natives  leaping  from  the  boat, 
then  the  cutting  of  a  path  through  the  almost  im- 
penetrable jungle.  Manzanillo  Island,  now  the  site 
of  Colon  and  Cristobal,  was  then  a  low  coral  island 
—  a  malaria  infested  swamp. 

Porto  Bello,  twenty  miles  away,  with  its  excellent 


260  THE   STORY  OF  PANAMA 

harbor,  would  have  made  a  much  better  Atlantic 
terminus  for  the  railroad.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  logical 
terminus  from  its  historic  r61e  as  the  Atlantic  end 
of  the  old  Royal  Road.  Mr.  Tracy  Robinson,  in 
his  excellent  book  of  personal  reminiscences,  gives 
as  the  reason  why  Porto  Bello  was  not  chosen  the 
inability  of  the  railroad  company  to  secure  a  right  of 
way  there  at  a  reasonable  price.  A  New  Yorker 
owned  the  available  land  at  Porto  Bello,  and  he 
held  out  for  a  price  which  the  young  company 
felt  that  it  could  not  pay.  As  a  consequence,  the 
excellent  harbor  was  given  up.  Manzanillo  Island 
in  Limon  or  Navy  Bay  was  the  next  best  location. 

So  antagonistic  to  human  invasion^  was  this  coral 
island  and  the  jungle  back  of  it,  that  work  was  ex- 
tremely slow.  By  October  1, 1851,  a  year  and  a  half 
after  the  start,  the  steel  rails  had  been  laid  as  far  as 
Gatun,  six  miles  from  Colon.  Could  the  railroad  have 
been  completed  at  this  time  —  an  impossible  task  —  a 
fortune  would  have  been  earned  by  it  from  the 
Forty-niners  and  the  stream  of  gold  seekers  who,  in 
the  few  years  following,  chose  the  Panama  route  as 
the  best  way  of  getting  to  California.  A  steel  girded 
roadbed  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  would  have 
furnished  a  more  convenient  and  less  perilous  route 
than  that  from  the  Chagres  to  Cruces  or  Gorgona, 
and  thence  by  mule  to  Panama. 

As  it  was,  the  railroad  did  a  profitable  business 


THE   PANAMA   RAILROAD  261 

before  its  completion,  transporting  immigrants  and 
fortune  hunters  westward  bound.  It  is  said  that 
the  road  earned  $2,000,000  during  the  time  of  its 
construction. 

By  1852  the  most  difficult  part  of  the  work  had 
been  done,  as  the  road  had  been  carried  through 
the  swamps  between  Colon  and  Gatun  and  the 
famous  Black  Swamp  between  Lion  Hill  and  Ahorca 
Lagarta  which  were  the  great  obstacles  in  the 
construction.  When  the  road  was  half  completed, 
work  stopped  for  almost  a  year,  but  it  was  taken  up 
again,  and  the  battle  against  disease,  difficulties  and 
tropical  dangers  was  carried  to  successful  completion 
on  January  27,  1855.  On  that  day  the  last  spike 
was  driven  at  Culebra.  At  a  cost  of  $7,000,000  - 
$140,000  a  mile  —  and  the  loss  of  enough  lives  to 
give  rise  to  the  story  that  every  tie  of  the  railroad 
represented  a  human  life  —  the  big  task  was  finished. 

With  the  completion  of  the  railroad  the  malaria 
infested  swamp  on  the  coral  island  at  the  Atlantic 
terminus  was  transformed  into  a  small  city,  which 
gradually  grew  into  a  seaport  of  consequence.  The 
town  of  Colon,  born  with  the  railroad  sixty  years 
ago,  is  now  a  flourishing  little  city  with  prospects 
brighter  than  ever  before  hi  its  turbulent  career. 
With  the  canal  an  accomplished  fact  it  may  in  time 
outstrip  even  Panama  in  commercial  importance. 
Colon  is  still  mediaeval  in  makeup,  but  American 


262  THE   STORY   OF  PANAMA 

enterprise  is  being  injected  every  day  into  its  com- 
mercial life.  A  $300,000  fire  on  March  23,  1911, 
which  wiped  out  a  fourth  of  the  poorly  built  part 
of  the  town,  will  some  day  be  looked  back  upon  as  a 
boon  to  the  place. 

Originally,  in  1852,  the  town  was  called  Aspinwall 
in  honor  of  one  of  the  promoters  of  the  railroad. 
The  place  would  still  be  called  by  that  name  but  for 
the  objection  of  the  government  of  Colombia,  which 
insisted  that  the  name  be  changed  to  Colon.  Ameri- 
cans refused  to  recognize  it  as  Colon  until  the  South 
American  Republic  stopped  delivering  mail  addressed 
to  Aspinwall.  The  dispute  at  one  time  assumed 
almost  the  dignity  of  a  diplomatic  incident,  Colombia 
refusing]  to  issue  an  exequatur  to  an  American  consul 
at  "Aspinwall."  Since  it  was  a  town  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  Colombia,  there  was  nothing  the 
American  government  could  do  but  acquiesce. 
;  Colon  has  a  number  of  interesting  buildings  whose 
associations  date  back  to  the  early  days  of  the  rail- 
road. The  weather-beaten  Washington  Hotel  on 
Colon  Beach  recently  replaced  by  the  "New  Wash- 
ington" breasted  the  trade  winds  for  a  half  century. 
Corpus  Christi  Church  has  pointed  its  spires  sky- 
ward since  1865.  The  old  station,  four  blocks 
north  of  the  present  modern  structure,  was  the  ter- 
minus of  the  railroad  for  many  years  and  was  not 
turned  into  a  freight  station  until  the  present  regime. 


THE   PANAMA  RAILROAD  263 

The  story  of  the  securing  of  the  railroad's  franchise 
is  interesting.  The  terms  of  this  franchise,  granted 
to  Stephens  by  the  Republic  of  Colombia,  were  later 
the  cause  of  much  worry  to  the  railroad.  Under  it 
the  road  could  be  bought  by  the  government  of 
Colombia  in  twenty  years  for  $5,000,000,  and  at  the 
end  of  forty-nine  years  it  reverted  to  that  Republic 
without  payment.  In  1867  a  new  franchise  was 
secured.  The  life  of  the  franchise  was  extended 
ninety-nine  years,  but  this  concession  entailed  the 
cash  payment  to  Colombia  of  $1,000,000  and  a 
yearly  bonus  of  $250,000. 

From  the  start,  high  rates  were  charged  by  the 
Panama  Railroad.  Twenty-five  dollars  for  a  first 
class  passage  across  the  Isthmus,  ten  dollars  for 
second  class  and  five  cents  per  pound  for  baggage 
seems  rather  high  to  tourists  from  the  two  cents  a 
mile  states  in  the  Union  who  object  to  the  fare  of 
two  dollars  and  forty  cents  now  charged.  They 
feel  better  when  told  what  the  fare  used  to  be.  It 
is  said  that  in  the  old  days  the  passenger  who  ob- 
jected to  the  high  tariff  gained  nothing  by  attempt- 
ing to  walk  across  the  Isthmus.  The  railroad  owned 
the  only  passable  route  and  charged  travelers  the 
full  fare  whether  they  went  afoot  or  in  a  railway 
coach. 

For  the  first  ten  years  of  its  career  the  railroad  did 
an  enormous  business.  Shares  of  the  stock  shot  up 


264  THE   STOEY   OF   PANAMA 

to  one  hundred  above  par  and  stayed  there  for  a 
part  of  the  time.  A  statement  published  when  the 
railroad  was  fifty  years  old  shows  that  almost  forty 
million  dollars  in  dividends  had  been  earned  up  to 
that  time.  In  1869  the  Overland  Route  was  com- 
pleted in  the  United  States  and  much  of  the 
transcontinental  business  left  the  Panama  Rail- 
road. About  this  time,  too,  the  railroad,  laboring 
under  the  mistaken  idea  that  it  could  dictate  terms 
to  the  shippers  via  the  Isthmus,  lost  a  vast  amount 
of  business  through  the  establishment  of  steamship 
lines  by  rival  companies. 

When  the  French  company  began  operations,  as 
related  in  Chapter  II,  it  bought  sixty-eight  seventieths 
of  the  railroad  stock  for  $18,000,000.  But  when  the 
United  States  bought  the  road  from  the  French, 
instead  of  paying  the  $18,000,000  the  French  had 
given  for  it,  our  government  included  the  purchase 
price  of  the  railroad  in  the  $40,000,000  we  paid  the 
New  Panama  Canal  Company. 

In  addition  to  all  rights,  franchises,  properties 
and  unfinished  work  on  the  canal  which  the  French 
had  left,  we  acquired  from  the  company  all  the 
capital  stock  of  the  Panama  Railroad  which  it  held. 
By  the  provisions  of  the  Spooner  Bill  this  was  to  be 
not  less  than  68,863  shares  out  of  a  total  of  70,000 
shares.  In  figuring  the  amount  of  money  which  the 
United  States  should  pay  the  French  company  for 


I.    GATHERING   COCONUTS 
II.    A   PINEAPPLE    PLANTATION 


(266) 


THE   PANAMA  RAILROAD  267 

all  its  properties  in  Panama,  the  value  of  the  rail- 
road was  estimated  at  $7,000,000,  the  original  capi- 
talization of  the  road.  In  January,  1905,  the  United 
States,  on  the  recommendation  of  Secretary  Taft, 
bought  the  remainder  of  the  outstanding  stock, 
which  was  less  than  two  seventieths  of  the  whole. 
For  this  stock  the  United  States  government  paid 
$275  per  share,  or  $312,675.  By  this  acquisition  of 
outstanding  stock  held  by  private  individuals,  the 
United  States  became  sole  owner  of  the  Panama 
Railroad  and  of  its  steamship  lines  from  Colon  to 
New  York.  As  stated  before,  however,  the  road  is 
operated  as  a  private  corporation  by  a  board  of 
directors. 


CHAPTER  X 

DIPLOMACY  OF  TWO  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY  YEARS 

THE  completion  of  an  American  canal  under 
American  control  will  mark  the  culmination  not 
only  of  years  of  physical  endeavor,  but  also  of  cen- 
turies of  statecraft.  Contemporary  with  the  dreams 
of  Isthmian  canal  projectors  was  the  activity  of  the 
diplomats  of  many  nations.  The  countries  chiefly 
interested  in  securing  this  strip  of  land  were  England, 
Spain,  France,  Colombia  and  the  United  States.  > 

Next  to  Spain,  whose  interest  dates  from  the  days 
of  Columbus,  England  has  been  a  factor  in  Isthmian 
affairs  longer  than  any  other  nation.  As  early  as 
1650  British  freebooters  were  settling  hi  desultory 
fashion  hi  Honduras  and  Nicaragua.  Spain  pro- 
tested, but  twenty  years  later  a  treaty  between  the 
two  countries  confirmed  the  English  in  their  pos- 
sessions, though  Spain  two  years  afterward  insisted 
that  this  treaty  applied  only  to  Jamaica  and  to  the 
other  islands  England  was  occupying.  England, 
however,  maintained  that  the  treaty  referred  to  the 
mainland  as  well,  and  began  a  series  of  maneuvers 
in  which,  diplomatically,  she  far  excelled  her  rivals. 


DIPLOMACY  OF  TWO  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY  YEARS    269 

During  this  same  century  British  adventurers, 
negroes  from  a  Dutch  slaver  and  the  native  Indians 
formed  a  hybrid  colony  along  that  part  of  the  Nicara- 
guan  shore  known  as  the  Mosquito  coast.  This 
settlement  in  the  land  of  the  Mosquito  Indian  be- 
came an  entering  wedge  for  England,  who  landed 
troops  and  occupied  the  place  in  1740.  In  1775  the 
British  colony  in  Mosquito  Land  was  made  into  a 
dependency  of  Jamaica.  Protests  of  Spain  resulted 
in  little,  for  while  England  treated  with  her  each 
time,  the  Spaniards  were  outwitted  by  superior 
diplomacy. 

In  1779  England  gave  up  her  claim  to  the  land, 
keeping,  however,  a  strip  at  Belize  (now  British 
Honduras)  in  which  to  "cut  trees."  A  few  years 
later  Spain  was  induced  to  enlarge  this  tree  cutting 
area.  By  1825  England  had  established  a  regency 
at  Bluefields,  and  ten  years  later  the  land  of  the 
Mosquitoes  was  organized  as  a  province  under  the 
name  of  British  Honduras.  Finally,  in  1860,  by  a 
diplomatic  coup  in  which  she  induced  Nicaragua  to 
acknowledge  the  validity  of  English  claims  to  Hon- 
duras, Great  Britain  became  an  established  fixture 
along  that  part  of  the  Isthmus. 

Since  England  had  so  firm  a  hold  on  Nicaragua 
she  naturally  became  the  chief  nation  with  which  the 
American  government  had  to  deal  when  at  last  it 
became  interested  in  the  Isthmus.  The  United 


270  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

States  had  been  slow  to  appreciate  the  great  opportu- 
nity almost  at  her  door.  In  1835  some  interest  was 
manifested  in  the  Isthmus,  when  on  the  motion  of 
Senator  Henry  Clay,  President  Jackson  sent  Charles 
Biddle  there  to  investigate  the  possibility  of  a  canal. 
This  mission  had  no  definite  results,  but  finally  the 
United  States,  aroused  by  the  need  of  communica- 
tion with  her  new  possessions  in  the  northwest  and 
the  far  west,  negotiated  a  treaty  with  New  Granada 
which  was  ratified  by  the  United  States  Senate  on 
June  10,  1846. 

By  this  treaty  the  United  States  secured  the  sole 
right  of  transit  across  the  Isthmus  on  any  routes 
opened  by  road,  railroad  or  canal  from  the  Atrato 
River  northward  to  the  Chiriqui  Lagoon.  This 
embraced  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  in  its  limited 
definition,  and  was  the  treaty  which  made  possible 
the  Panama  Railroad  whose  franchise  was  secured 
four  years  later.  Other  terms  of  the  treaty  were  that 
American  citizens  were  to  be  put  on  the  same  basis 
as  citizens  of  New  Granada  as  to  concessions,  im- 
munities, tolls,  etc.  In  return  for  these  concessions, 
the  United  States  agreed  to  maintain  the  neutrality 
of  any  lines  of  transit  which  might  be  built  and  to 
guarantee  the  rights  of  New  Granada  against  aliens. 
The  American  government  also  guaranteed  the 
sovereignty  of  New  Granada. 

Flushed  with  the  success  of  this  treaty,  the  United 


DIPLOMACY  OF  TWO  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY  YEARS    273 

States,  three  years  later,  sent  Elijah  Rise  to  Nicara- 
gua, and  he  attempted  to  create  there  the  conditions 
we  had  just  established  at  the  Lower  Isthmus  of 
Panama.  But  there  were  complications,  due  to  the 
fact  that  England  was  interested  in  Nicaragua, 
whereas  she  had  not  been  particularly  interested 
in  Panama.  The  government  at  Washington  re- 
called Hise  and  sent  down  E.  G.  Squier,  who  had, 
however,  views  similar  to  those  of  his  predecessor. 
He  made  a  treaty  with  Nicaragua,  guaranteeing  to 
that  Republic  the  sovereignty  over  the  territory 
traversed  by  the  proposed  canal.  But  this  was  a 
direct  slap  at  England,  which  was  asserting  sover- 
eignty over  the  Atlantic  terminus  of  such  a  route. 
England  retaliated  by  taking  steps  to  seize  from 
Honduras  Tiger  Island  in  the  Gulf  of  Fonseca,  which 
would  give  her  control  of  the  Pacific  terminus.  Her 
ostensible  ground  for  this  was  the  failure  of  Honduras 
to  pay  an  old  debt. 

In  return,  Mr.  Squier  hastily  made  a  treaty  with 
Nicaragua  by  which  she  ceded  Tiger  Island  to  the 
United  States.  This  created  a  situation  which 
would  mean  an  open  breach  with  England  unless 
something  was  speedily  done.  Something  was  done 
which  American  statesmen  had  cause  to  regret  for 
the  next  fifty  years.  This  something  was  the 
Clayton-Bulwer  treaty.  Since  the  political  situa- 
tion in  the  United  States  at  this  tune  rendered 


274  THE   STOKY  OF   PANAMA 

war  with  England  inexpedient,  this  treaty  was  ac- 
cepted as  the  only  alternative  in  sight. 

By  this  treaty,  which  was  proclaimed  in  1850,  the 
neutrality  of  an  Isthmian  canal  was  guaranteed  to 
the  extent  that  neither  government  was  to  build  or 
to  fortify  it,  nor  ever  to  enter  into  an  alliance  with 
any  Central  American  country  to  that  end.  Any 
company  which  cared  to  undertake  the  project  was 
to  be  jointly  protected  by  England  and  by  the  United 
States,  and  they  were  to  invite  other  nations  to  join 
in  this  protection.  There  were  to  be  two  free  ports, 
one  at  each  end  of  the  canal.  This  principle  of 
neutrality  was  to  be  applied  to  all  canal  routes  on 
the  Isthmus. 

Naturally  England  did  not  apply  the  treaty  to 
British  Honduras  or  to  Mosquito  Land,  and  so  she 
successfully  kept  the  United  States  out  of  the  Isthmus 
while  relinquishing  nothing.  The  difficulty  in  which 
the  United  States  had  placed  herself  was  not  realized 
for  some  years.  The  events  leading  up  to  the  Civil 
War  and  the  war  itself  kept  the  American  govern- 
ment busy  with  matters  at  home.  Once  her  own 
house  was  again  in  order,  however,  the  United  States 
had  an  opportunity  to  appreciate  the  full  significance 
of  the  treaty. 

In  1866  Secretary  Seward  voiced  a  growing  pop- 
ular sentiment  by  suggesting  that  the  United  States 
buy  Tiger  Island  and  abrogate  the  Clayton-Bulwer 


DIPLOMACY  OF  TWO  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY  YEARS    275 

treaty..  Under  Presidents  Buchanan  and  Lincoln 
the  American  government  had  begun  to  feel  the 
need  of  a  freer  rein  on  the  Isthmus.  Lincoln  at 
one  time  considered  a  plan  to  establish  colonies  of 
emancipated  slaves  near  the  Chiriqui  Lagoon,  along 
the  Costa  Rican  shore  line.  President  Grant  ad- 
vocated the  bold  policy  of  an  "  American  Canal 
under  American  control/ '  but  the  Senate  in  1869 
and  1870  refused  to  ratify  treaties  with  Nicaragua 
looking  toward  an  Isthmian  waterway. 

The  undercurrent  of  sentiment  against  our  limi- 
tations on  the  Isthmus  came  to  the  surface  again 
when  De  Lesseps  was  said  to  be  trying  to  influence 
Colombia  to  abrogate  the  treaty  of  1846  and  to 
permit  him  to  build  a  canal  under  French  control. 
The  determined  attitude  of  President  Hayes  caused 
De  Lesseps  to  abandon  his  attempt  and  to  organize 
a  private  company,  which  solicited  funds  hi  America 
as  well  as  in  France.  President  Hayes  applied  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  to  the  De  Lesseps  case. 

For  years  the  agitation  for  an  American  built 
canal  controlled  by  America  recurred  with  each  new 
canal  project,  and  always  it  ran  against  the  Clayton- 
Bulwer  treaty.  When  the  United  States  was  at 
war  with  Spain,  an  event  occurred  which  thoroughly 
aroused  the  American  people.  Admiral  Cervera's 
fleet  was  in  Atlantic  waters,  and  it  was  thought  that 
the  Oregon,  one  of  the  biggest  battleships  of  the 


276  THE   STORY  OF   PANAMA 

United  States,  was  needed  to  reenforce  the  American 
Atlantic  squadron.  The  Oregon  was  at  San  Fran- 
cisco and  had  to  make  the  long  and  perilous  trip 
around  the  Horn.  In  suspense  the  American  public 
watched  the  daily  progress  of  the  ship  on  her  long 
journey  as  reported  through  the  newspapers.  The 
fact  that  she  made  a  superb  voyage  and  was  not 
needed  after  all,  did  not  alter  the  firm  conviction  in 
American  minds  that  a  canal  must  be  built  for  just 
such  emergencies  if  for  no  other  purpose. 

In  1900,  two  years  later,  the  United  States  was 
negotiating  the  Hay-Pauncefote  treaty,  which  was  to 
make  possible  the  American  canal. 

The  Hay-Pauncefote  treaty,  ratified  December  16, 
1901,  makes  the  following  provisions :  First,  abro- 
gates the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty.  Second,  gives 
the  United  States  power  to  construct,  operate  and 
control  a  canal.  Third,  gives  the  United  States  a 
free  hand  over  the  canal  in  time  of  war.  Fourth, 
forbids  the  blockading  of  the  canal  but  does  not 
forbid  our  fortifying  it. 

Thus  ended  the  years  of  diplomacy  leading  up 
to  the  construction  of  the  canal.  That  the  United 
States  was  the  logical  builder  of  such  a  canal  be- 
came as  evident  to  England  as  to  ourselves.  After 
the  French  fiasco,  this  was  the  only  solution  of  the 
problem. 

The  matter  of  fortification  was  definitely  settled 


I.    CATHEDRAL   PLAZA,    PANAMA 
II.   INSTALLING   THE   WATER   SYSTEM,    PANAMA 


(277) 


DIPLOMACY  OF  TWO  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY  YEARS    279 

in  the  spring  of  1911,  when  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives of  the  United  States  voted  an  appropriation 
of  $3,000,000  for  that  purpose.  This  action  of  the 
American  Congress,  and  the  steps  since  taken  to 
stud  the  Isthmian  ports  with  forts,  settles  forever 
the  diplomatic  question  of  whether  or  not  we  have 
actually  acquired  from  England  the  right  to  fortify 
the  canal.  Even  after  the  Hay-Pauncefote  treaty 
was  ratified  and  as  late  as  the  fall  of  1910,  there  were 
people  in  the  United  States  who  insisted  that  the 
American  government  had  bound  itself  not  to  fortify 
this  great  waterway.  However,  a  careful  investi- 
gation of  the  diplomatic  provisions  of  the  Anglo- 
American  treaty  convinced  the  Administration  and 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  that,  by  omitting 
all  reference  to  the  question  of  fortification,  the 
makers  of  the  treaty  meant  to  leave  the  government 
of  the  United  States  free  to  do  just  as  it  chose  in  the 
matter.  Naturally,  it  chose  to  fortify  the  canal. 


Such  is  Panama's  story  —  a  story  of  the  search 
for  the  New  Route  to  India.  Columbus  came  this 
way  in  quest  of  a  more  direct  route  to  the  wealth 
of  the  Orient.  Cortez  believed  in  the  practicability 
of  securing  an  all-water  route  by  the  construction 
of  an  Isthmian  canal.  At  various  times  and  by 
various  peoples  surveys  have  been  made,  but  in 
each  case  the  project  has  ended  where  it  began,  and 


280  THE   STORY   OF   PANAMA 

it  was  not  till  1879,  when  the  French  launched  upon 
the  undertaking,  that  any  real  canal  digging  was 
done.  To  early  Spanish  enterprise  the  world  owed 
the  first  transisthmian  highway ;  to  American  enter- 
prise its  transisthmian  railway,  and  to  American 
enterprise  it  is  indebted  for  the  severing  of  the  con- 
tinents and  the  joining  of  the  Atlantic  ocean  with 
the  Pacific. 

As  we  have  shown,  the  idea  of  a  transisthmian 
canal  has  been  contemporaneous  with  the  beginnings 
and  growth  of  the  romantic  little  country  of  Panama. 
And  it  is  a  noteworthy  coincidence  that  the  cir- 
cumstance which  gave  birth  to  the  Republic  of 
Panama  was  the  same  which  put  the  canal  project 
in  a  way  to  materialize  the  NEW  ROUTE  TO  INDIA.  , 


INDEX 


Ahorca  Lagarta,  261. 
Alhajuela,  55,  66,  70. 
Amador,  Dr.,  22,  25. 
America,  Discovery  of,  159. 
Americans  in  Canal  Zone,  37, 

124,  134,  151. 

Ancon  (city),  90, 118, 137, 141. 
Ancon,  The,  109. 
Ancon  Hill,  222. 
Antonelli  (explorer),  3. 
AspinwaU  (town),  262. 
Aspinwall,  W.  H.,  259. 
Atlantic  Ocean,  1-2,  44. 
Atrato  River,  171,  258,  270. 
Auditor   of   the   Canal    Zone, 

135,  143. 
Avila,    Pedro    Arias    de,    see 

Pedrarias. 
Aztecs,  235-236. 

Balboa,  Vasco  Nunez  de,  1, 
93,  168-178,  180,  231, 
235. 

Balboa  (city),  47,  90,  178. 

Balboa  Hill,  175. 

Barbacoas,  217. 

Bas  Obispo,  77,  81,  100. 

Bastidas,  Roderigo  de,  165- 
166,  168-169,  191. 

Bastimentos,  Isle  of,  164. 

Bayana  River,  244. 

Belize  (British  Honduras),  269. 


Beri-beri  in  Canal  Zone,  121. 
Biddle,  Charles,  270. 
Bishop,  Joseph  Bucklin,  42. 
Blackburn,  Jo.  C.  S.,  135. 
Black  Swamp,  66,  261. 
Bluefields,  269. 
Bocas  del  Toro,  222. 
Bocas  del  Toro,  Province  of, 

27. 

Bogota,  18,  20,  25,  259. 
Bohio,  65,  69,  70-71,  76. 
Bolivar,  Simon,  19,  258. 
Boquete,  245,  250. 
Breakwaters,  34,  47. 
British  Honduras,  269,  274. 
Brodley,  Captain,  211-215. 
Brunet,  Joseph,  14. 
Buchanan,    President    James, 

275. 
Bunau-Varilla,  Philippe,  25. 

Caledonia,  172. 
Caledonian  Route,  175. 
California,  260. 
CampSche,  200. 
CampSche  Bay,  179. 
Canal  project,  The  : 

French  Attempt,  The,  7-14. 

Interest  of  other  nations  in, 
2-13. 

Interest  of  the  United  States 
in,  4,  17-19,  268-280. 


281 


282 


INDEX 


Canal  project,  The : 

Possible  routes  considered, 

3-4,  17,  175. 
Possible    types    considered, 

7,  10,  13,  41,  47. 
American  Canal,  The  :  con- 
struction  of,   42-44,    48- 
94;    cost   of,    8,    14,   19, 
29,  43,  47,  100,  107,  112, 
132,    136;     statistics    re- 
garding, 42-43,  47 ;  water 
supply,  62-66,  70. 
Canal  Zone,  The : 

Acquisition  of,  14,  17,  97. 
Americans  in,  110,  133-134, 

251-256. 

Area  and    natural   features 

of,  19, 28, 69-71, 77, 81-86, 

107,    111-112,    149,   250- 

251. 

Jurisdiction   in,    19,   28-29, 

97-98,    111,    276-279. 
Occupation  of,  134. 
Other  nationalities  in,  134, 

251,  256-257. 

Politics   in,    146,   252,   255. 
Schools    in,    132-133,    135, 

137,  145-149,  151. 
Statistics  regarding,  43,  121, 

256-257. 

Canals,  Comparison  of,  47. 
Canal  Record,  The,  99, 150, 154. 
Cape  Horn,  206,  276. 
Caribbean  Sea,  30,  44,  165. 
Cartagena,  170,  180,  190,  211. 
Castilla  del  Oro  Country,  171. 
Castle  Chagre  (Fort  San  Lo- 
renzo), 211. 
Castle  Gloria,  191. 


Cathay,  160,  163. 

Central  Avenue,  Panama,  111. 

Central  Hotel,  252. 

Cervera,  Admiral  Pascual,  275. 

Chagres  (city),  184. 

Chagres  (port),  188. 

Chagres  River,  10,  33,  41,  51- 

52,  57,  62,  65-66,  70,  76- 

78,151,164,184,188,211, 

215-216,  260. 
Charles  V,  of  Spain,  2,  3. 
Chauncey,  Henry,  259. 
Chepo,  244. 
Chibcha  Indians,  236. 
Chicago,  126. 
Chief  Engineer  of  the  Isthmian 

Canal    Commission,     43, 

85,  89,  99,  155. 
China,  160. 

Chinese,  134,  137,  255-256. 
Chiriqui,  Province  of,  27,  236, 

243. 
Chiriqui    Lagoon,    163,    258, 

270,  275. 

Chiriqui  Volcano,  243. 
Cimmaroon  Indians,  227. 
Cipango,  160. 
Civil    War     (in    the    United 

States),  4,  274. 
Clay,  Senator  Henry,  270. 
Clayton-Bulwer    treaty,    273- 

276. 

Code,  Province  of,  27. 
Colombia,  Republic  of : 
Negotiations    with    France, 

9,  17-19,  166. 
Negotiations    with    United 

States,    17-20,    258-259, 

262-263. 


INDEX 


283 


Colombia,  Republic  of : 

Relations  with  Panama,  19- 

26,  268. 
Relations  with  Spain,  19. 

Colon  (city),  25-26,  28,  34, 
111-112,  118,  134,  142, 
166,  228,  245,  250. 

Colon,  Province  of,  27. 

Colon  Beach,  Statue  at,  259. 

Colon  Harbor,  44,  191,  240. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  1-2, 
30,  33,  159-168,  178,  191, 
235,  279. 

Comogre  (Indian  chief),  171. 

Compagnie  Universelle  du  Canal 
Interoceanique,  see  Univer- 
sal Interoceanic  Company. 

Concha  (Colombian  Minis- 
ter), 19. 

Confederacidn  Granadina,  20. 

Constantinople,  233. 

Contractor's  Hill,  82. 

Cordillera  Mountains,  33. 

Corozal,  104. 

Corpus   Christi   Church,   262. 

Cortez,  Hernando,  2,  3,  235, 
279. 

Costa  Rica,  163,  275. 

Coupon  Books,  131,  154. 

Courts  of  Justice  in  the  Canal 
Zone,  133,  136,  142-144, 
150-151. 

Cristobal,  34,  71,  77,  104,  131, 
137,  141,  167,  259. 

Cristobal,  The,  109. 

Crocodiles,  River  of  (Chagres 
River),  164. 

Cruces,  184,  187,  190-191, 
202,  217,  220,  260. 


Cuba,  163,  207. 

Cucaracha  Slide,  85. 

Culebra    (town),  71,   78,   86, 

104,  261. 
Culebra  Cut,  42,  48,  70,  72, 

76-89. 
Culebra  Slide,  82,  85,  141. 

Damage  claims  against  I.  C. 

C.,  76,  151. 
Dampier,  William,   196,  222- 

226. 

Darien  (town),  227. 
Darien,  Gulf  of,  164-165,  169- 

172,  234. 

Darien,  Isthmus  of,  3,  231. 
David,  245,  250. 
Davis,  Major  General  George 

W.,  134. 
Declaration   of   Independence 

of  Panama,  21-22,  26. 
De  Cosa  (explorer),  235. 
Do  Leon,  Ponce,  234. 
De  Lesseps,  Count  Ferdinand, 

7-13,  167,  275. 
De  Lesseps  Buildings,  34. 
Denver,  61. 

De  Soto,  Hernando,  234-235. 
Devol,  Colonel  C.  A.,  101. 
Dikes,  47. 

Dominican  friars,  3. 
Drake,  Sir  Francis,  4,  196-207. 
Dutch  pirates,  206,  208. 
Dutch    settlers     in    Panama, 

192. 

East  Indians,  134, 251. 
Empire   (city),  82,   104,   141, 
149. 


284 


INDEX 


Employees  of  I.  C.  C.,  34,  72, 
110,  125,  138,  141,  146, 
154,  251. 

J'Gold  "  employees,  101-104. 
"Silver"     employees,    101- 

102,  104. 
Encisco,  Martin  Fernandez  de, 

169-171,  176. 
England : 

Explorations     under,     196- 

204,  206-207. 

Interest  in  Panama,  4,  134, 
210,     231-232,     268-269, 
273-276. 
Relations  with    the  United 

States,    269,    273-276. 
Esquemeling    (historian),  206, 
208-209,     211,     216-217, 
219. 
Eugenie,  Empress,  of  France, 

166. 

Exclusion  laws  against  Chinese 
and  Syrians,  137. 

Ferdinand,    King    of    Spain, 

163. 

Feuille,  Judge  Frank,  151. 
Flamenco  Island,  90. 
Fluviograph   stations,  55,  70- 

71. 

Fonseca,   Gulf  of,  273. 
Fortification  of  the  Canal,  28, 

153,  276,  279. 
Fort  Jeronimo,  191-192. 
France : 

Explorations    under,     203- 

204,  207. 
Frenchmen  in  Panama,  115, 

199. 


Interest  in  Canal  project,  4, 
233-234,  268 ;  attempt  to 
construct,  7-14,  38,  41- 

42,  76,  155,  199,  264,  276, 
279. 

Negotiations  with  Colombia, 
9, 17-19 ;  with  the  United 
States,  17-19,  264,  267. 
Francisco  River,  203. 

Galvano    (Spanish  historian), 

163. 

Gamboa,  70. 
Gatun    (city),    37-41,    43-44, 

66,  70,  76,  78,  100,  104, 

141,  260-261. 
Gatun  Cocktail,  66. 
Gatun  Dam,  42,  48-52. 
Gatun  Lake,  30,  42,  57,  65, 

76,  94,  100,  151. 
Germans,  134,  232. 
Germany,  234. 
Goethals,  Colonel  George  W., 

43,  85,  89,  99,  155. 
Gold  Hill,  81-82,  86. 
Gold-seeking  Expeditions,  165, 

171,    177,    200-204,    240, 

260. 

Gorgas,  Dr.  W.  C.,  114. 
Gorgona,  76-77,  100,  104,  141, 

175,  260. 
Governor  of  the  Canal  Zone, 

134. 
Governor  of  Panama,  209-211, 

215,  217. 

Gracias  £  Dios  (town),  163. 
Gracias  a  Dios,  Cape,  169. 
Grant,   President   Ulysses   S., 

275. 


INDEX 


285 


Great  Khan  of  China,  160. 
Greeks,  134,  251. 
Guinea  town,  192,  195. 

Haiti,  30,  163-165,  171,  196. 
Havana,  114. 
Hawkins  (pirate),  222. 
Hawkins,  Sir  John,  199-200. 
Hay,   Secretary  John,   18. 
Hay-Bunau-Varilla  treaty,  28, 

97,  111. 

Hay-Herran  treaty,  19. 
Hay-Pauncefote    treaty,    142, 

276,  279. 
Hays,    President    Rutherford 

B.,  275. 

Herran,  Dr.  Thomas,  19. 
Hise,  Elijah,  273. 
Honduras,  169,  268,  273. 
Honduras  Bay,  163. 
Hospitals     and     sanitariums, 

118,  121-122. 
Huertas,  General,  25. 
Hydraulic  fill,  the,  55. 

Incas,  93,  171,  177,  236. 
India,  1. 

Indians,  33,  149,  164,  17O-172, 
179,    187,   202-203,   216- 
217,     22&-22S,     236-240, 
244-249,  269. 
Chibcha  Indians,  236. 
Maroon    Indians,    202-203, 

227. 

Mosquito  Indians,  269. 
San  Bias  Indians,  33,  228, 

236,  239-240. 

International    Scientific    Con- 
gress, The,  7,  8. 


Iron  Castle,  191,  195,  206. 
Isthmian  Canal  Commission : 
Departments  :   of  Civil  Ad- 
ministration, 99,  112, 132- 

149,  153 ;      (Divisions : 
Posts,  Customs  and  Rev- 
enues,   134-138;    of    Po- 
lice and  Prisons,  133-135, 
138-141 ;   of  Fire  Protec- 
tion,   133-135,    141-142; 
of  Public  Works,  112,  135, 
142-143;     Steam    Vessel 
Inspection    Service,    135, 
143;      of    Schools,     135, 
145-149;    Treasuier,  135, 
143;    Auditor,  135,  143; 
Judicial  Branch,  136,  143- 
144) ;  of  Construction  and 
Engineering,    30-90,    99, 
107,  109,  153,155;  (Divi- 
sions: Atlantic,  37-38, 66, 
99,  155;  Central  or  Cule- 
bra,  85,  99,  155 ;  Pacific, 
99, 155 ;  River  Hydraulics, 
Meteorology  and  Surveys, 
70-71,  155) ;  of  Disburse- 
ments, 99,  150,    154;    of 
Examination  of  Accounts, 
99,   150,   152-154;    Gen- 
eral Purchasing  Office,  99, 

150,  152;    of    Investiga- 
tions, 99, 150, 154;  of  Law, 
99, 150-151 ;  Quartermas- 
ter's, 38,  99, 101-110, 124 ; 
of  Sanitation,  72-75,  99, 
101, 111-123,  153;  of  Sub- 
sistence, 34,  99,  124r-131 ; 
(Building   and   Construc- 
tion Division,  107). 


286 


INDEX 


Isthmian  Canal  Commission : 
Organization,     30,    97-100, 

135. 
Relations  with  Panama,  135, 

150. 
Italians,  134,  251. 

Jackson,  President  Andrew,  270. 
Jamaica,  163,  207,  210,  220- 

221,  268-269. 
Japan,  160. 
Japanese,  134. 
Jesuit  Missionaries  in  Panama, 

227-228. 

Jordan,  David  Starr,  97. 
Junta,  The  revolutionary,  of 

Panama,  22,  25. 

La  Boca  (Balboa),  77, 178. 

Las  Cascadas,  77. 

Leper  colony,  122-123. 

Le  Prince,  Mr.,  117. 

Lidgerwood  cars,  86. 

Limon  Bay,  7,  34,  43,  191,  240, 

260. 
Lincoln,   President   Abraham, 

275. 

Lion  Hill,  261. 
Living  arrangements,  37,  102- 

107,  116,  133. 
Lorenzo,  Mount,  33,  211. 
Los  Santos,  Province  of,  27. 
Louis  Philippe,  233. 

Magellan,  Strait  of,  206. 
Malaria  in  Canal  Zone,   111, 

114-118,  121,  259,  261. 
Mansvelt  (Dutch  pirate),  206- 

207,  211. 


Manzanillo    Island,    33,    167, 

259-260. 

Manzanillo  Point,  170. 
Markets,  Public,  143. 
Maroon  Indians,  202-203, 227. 
Matachin,  77-78. 
Mexico,     2,      179,     235-236, 

258. 

Mindi,  38,  41. 
Miraflores  Lake,  44,  89. 
Miraflores  Locks,  44. 
Monroe  Doctrine,  275. 
Morales  (explorer),  179. 
Morgan,  Henry,  4,  180,   196, 

205-222. 

."Morgan's  Bridge,'!  183. 
Mosquito    Coast,     163,    269, 

274. 

Mosquito  Indians,  269. 
Mosquitoes    (campaign 

against),  75-76,  114-118. 
Mount  Ancon,  90. 
Mount  Hope  Cemetery,  38. 
Mount  Hope    storehouse,  38, 

108. 

Naos  Island,  47. 

Napoleon  III,  of  France,  233, 
234.J 

National     Geographic     Maga- 
zine, 43. 

Navy  Bay  (Limon  Bay),  260. 

Negotiations    of    the    United 

States : 

With  Colombia,  17-20,  258- 
259,  262-263 ;  with  Eng- 
land, 269,  273-276;  with 
France,  17-19,  264,  267; 
with  Nicaragua,  273 ;  with 


INDEX 


287 


Panama,  22-26,  28-29, 97, 

131,  135-137,  142,  268. 
Negroes,  251.  « 

Nelson,  Lord  Horatio,  232. 
New  Edinburg,  231. 
New  Granada,  19,  270. 
New   Granada,   Treaty   with, 

258-259,  263,  270,  274. 
New  Orleans,  125,  152. 
New  Panama  Canal  Company, 

The,  14,  264. 
"New  Route  to  India,"  159, 

160,  166-167,  279-280. 
New  York,  30,  125,  152. 
Nicaragua,  3,  17-18,  28,  206, 

232-233,  268,  273,  275. 
Night  of  Horror,  20. 
Nina,  The,  235. 
Niqueza  (explorer),    169-171, 

189. 
Nombre  de  Dios,  170,  184-195, 

200-201,     203-204,     206, 

227. 

Obaldia,  Governor  Jose",  26. 
Ojeda,  Alfonzo  de,  165,  169- 

170. 
Old    Panama,    180,    183-184, 

190,    195,    201,    206-207, 

211-212,  215-221. 
Oregon,  The,  275-276. 

Pacific  Ocean,  2,  44,  77,  93, 

222. 
Discovery  of,  1,  168,  172- 

178,  235. 
Palo  Seco,  122. 
Panama,  Bay  of,  7,  175-176, 

225. 


Panama,  Bishop  of,  10. 
Panama  City,  20,  25-26,  28, 
90,  111-112,  121,  134, 142, 
175,    180,    222-225,    245, 
250,    252,    260-261.     See 
also  Old  Panama. 
Panama,  Isthmus  of,  1,  4,  18, 
160-166,  169-178  ;  as  pos- 
sible site  of  canal,  3,  17, 
228,  232,  252. 
Panama,  Province  of,  27. 
Panama  Railroad : 

Commissary  Department  of, 

34,  66,  124. 
Employees  of,  43,  102,  138, 

141. 

History  of,  4,  9,  20,  25-26, 

28,  98-100,  258-267,  270. 

Relation   to   I.   C.   C.,   98, 

125,  150. 

Panama,  Republic  of : 
History  of,  17-29. 
Negotiations     with      the 
United    States,    22-26, 
2S-29,  97, 131, 135-137, 
142,  268. 
Relations  with  Colombia, 

19-26. 

Revolution,  17-29;  Dec- 
laration of  Indepen- 
dence, 21-22,  26,  164; 
government,  26-27 ; 
politics,  27,  246;  flag, 
26,28. 

Inhabitants    of,    134,    234- 

239,  244-251,  256-257. 

Natural    and    geographical 

features,  62, 65,  69, 191, 

192,  235,  243-244. 


288 


INDEX 


Panama,  Republic  of : 

Religion  of,  27,  246,  249. 
Paraiso,  89. 
Paris,  7. 

Parker  (explorer),  196. 
Patterson,  William,  228-232. 
Pearl  Islands,  176,  179. 
Pedrarias     (Pedro    Arias     de 

Avila),  176-178,  180,  231. 
Pedro  Miguel  (city),  44, 71, 81- 

82. 

Pedro  Miguel  Locks,  44. 
Peru,  4, 170,  177, 179, 190, 201, 

206,  220-222,  235-236. 
Philip  II,  of  Spain,  3. 
Pinzon  (explorer),  235. 
Pizarro,    Francisco,    93,   170- 

171,  177-179,  235. 
Polo,  Marco,  160. 
Porto  Bello,  104,  164-166,  168, 

184,    188,    190-195,    204, 

206-210,     219,     221-222, 

227,  260. 
Protocol,     Preliminary,     with 

Colombia,  18. 
Public  Buildings,  34,  38,  66, 

101,104,107,124,132,138. 
Public  Lands,  136. 
Puerte  del  Principe,  207. 
Puerto  Escoces,  231. 

Quarantine,  34,  90. 

Rainfall,   Statistics  regarding, 

70-71. 

Reports,  101,  128,  150,  153. 
Revenues,    136-137,    142-143, 

145. 
Ringrose  (explorer),  196,  225. 


Roads  in  Canal  Zone,  137-138, 

143. 

Robinson,  Tracy,  10,  260. 
Rolfe,  John,  171. 
Roosevelt,  Theodore,  134. 
Roosevelt  Avenue,   Cristobal, 

34,  166. 
Rousseau,    Commissioner    H. 

H.,  14,  61. 
Royal    Road,    The,    179-195, 

201,  206,  260. 

Saavedra  Ceron,  Alvaro  de,  3. 
St.  Anastasius,  Cathedral  of, 

183. 

St.  Andrews,  231. 
St.  Michael,  175. 
San  Bias  Indians,  33,  228,  236, 

239-240. 

San  Bias  Islands,  222. 
San  Francisco,  125,  152,  276. 
San   Lorenzo,   Fort,    184^188, 

211-216,  220-221. 
San  Miguel,  Gulf  of,  175-177, 

226. 

San  Pablo,  76,  82. 
San  Sebastian,  170-171. 
Santa  Katalina,  206-207,  211, 

215. 

Santa  Maria,  222. 
Santa  Maria  del  Antigua,  171- 

172,  176-177. 
Santa  Maria,  The.  235. 
Santo  Domingo,  30,  169,  196. 
Scandinavians,  134. 
Schools  in  Canal  Zone,   132- 

133,    135,    137,    145-149, 

151. 
Scotchmen,  134. 


INDEX 


289 


Scotland,  231. 

I 'Scrapping"  of  French  Mate- 
rial, 76,  101,  109. 
Secretary    of     the     Isthmian 

Canal     Commission,     42, 

99,  154. 
Seward,  Secretary  William  H., 

274. 
Sharp    (explorer),     196,    222, 

226. 

Smallpox,  111,  121. 
Social    Functions,    104,    132, 

250-255. 

Society   of  Commercial  Geog- 
raphy, 7. 
Sosa  Hill,  90. 
South  America,  184,  225. 
"South  Sea"   (Pacific  Ocean), 

1,  93,  172,  176-178. 
Spain : 

Explorations    under,      1-4, 

159-178,  234-235. 
Interest  in  canal  project,  2- 

3,  268-269,  280. 
Relations  with  Colombia,  19. 
Spanish  people  in  Panama, 

134,    151,    179-180,    196- 

201,   206,   208-232,   235- 

239,  249-251. 
Spooner  Bill,  17,  264. 
Squier,  E.  G.,  273. 
Statistics,  16,  42-47,  121,  127- 

128,  136,  256-257. 
Stephens,  John  L.,  259,  263. 
Strait,  Belief  in  existence  of, 

1,  2,  160,  165,  234. 
Suez  Canal,  7,  9,  13,  47. 
Superintendent     of     Schools, 

122. 


Supplies,    38,    101-102,    107- 

109,  124-131. 
Syrians,  134,  137. 

Tabernilla,  70. 
Taboga,  122,  219,  225,  246. 
Taft,  William  H.,  267. 
Taft  Agreement,  The,  136. 
Tehuantepec,    Isthmus   of,   3, 

179. 

Tetu,  Captain,  203-204. 
Thatcher,  Maurice  H.,  135. 
Tides,  Ocean,  44. 
Tiger  Island,  273-274. 
Tivoli    Hotel,    90,    93,    250, 

252. 

Toro  Point,  33,  47. 
Tortuga,  Isle  of,  210. 
Toscanelli's  map,  160. 
Totten,  Colonel  G.  M.,  259. 
Track-shifting  machines,  72. 
Trafalgar,  232. 
Treasurer  of  the  Canal  Zone, 

135,  143. 
Treaties : 

Clayton-Bulwer,  273-276. 

Hay-Bunau-Varilla,  28,  97, 
111. 

Hay-Herran,  19. 

Hay-Pauncefote,    142,    276, 
279. 

With   New   Granada,   258- 

259,  263,  270,  274. 
Trinidad,  200. 
Tuberculosis   in   Canal   Zone, 

121. 

Turin,  Italy,  166. 
Turks,  134. 
Tuyra  River,  228. 


290 


INDEX 


Typhoid  fever  in  Canal  Zone, 
121. 

Universal   Interoceanic   Com- 
pany, The,  8,  9,  13. 

Vela,  Cape  de  la,  169. 
Venezuela,  165,  169. 
Venta  Cruz  (Cruces),  184. 
Vera  Cruz,  199,  211. 
Veraguas,     Province    of,    27, 

164. 

Vespucci,  Amerigo,  234. 
Victuals,  Isle  of,  164. 
Von  Humboldt,  Baron,  232. 


Wafer,   Lionel,   196,  225-226, 

228. 

Washington  Hotel,  Colon,  262. 
Watling's  Island,  30. 
West   Indians,   78,    134,    138, 

149,  151,  196,  251. 
West  Indies,  1,  196,  210. 
Wilson,  Major  Eugene  T.,  125. 
Wyse,  Lieutenant,  175. 

Yaviza,  228. 

Yellow  Fever  in  Canal  Zone, 

111,  114-117,  121. 
Yucatan,  235-236. 
Y.  M.  C.  A.,  66,  104,  252,  255. 


